Deficiencies  Ir  our  History 

An  Address  delfvered  before 
The  Vermont  Historical 
And  Antiquarian  Society 

By  James  Davie  Butler 


I'l'iftsn 


DEFICIENCIES  IN  OUR  HISTORY 

AN 

ADDRESS 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 

VERMONT  HISTORICAL 


AND 


ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY, 

AT  MONTPELIER, 

OCTOBER  16,  1846. 

With  an  appendix  containing  the  charter,  constitu- 
tion AND  BY-LAWS  OF  THE  SOCIETY.  THE  VERMONT 
DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  JANUARY  I5TH.  1777. 
THE  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  CONVENTION,  4TH  OF  JUNE. 
1777.  AND  THE  "SONG  OF  THE  VERMONTERS."  IN  1779. 


BY  JAMES  DAVIE  BUTLER. 
Professor  in  Norwich  Unioersity. 


MONTPEUER: 

EASTMAN  AND  DANFORTH. 
1846. 


\ 


Deficiencies  in  our  History 


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NOTE 

In  issuing  this  reprint  the  original  pamphlet  has  been  followed 
and  the  list  of  names,  p.  37-38,  is  given  without  change,  though  it 
contains  many  typographical  errors.  See  Vt.  Governor  and  Council 
V.  I  note  page  5  7. 

The  "Vermont  Declaration  of  Independence  "  wm  published  in  the 
Connecticut  Courant,  No.  634,  March  1  7,  I  777  (see  v.  I  Vermont 
Governor  &  Council  p.  50  and  note  p.  57). 

On  page  34,  in  a  note  signed  C.  G.  E.  (  Chas.  G.  Eastman  ),  it  is 
stated  that  "  the  following  declaration  and  accompanying  papers  were 
found  by  Mr.  Stevens  at  Washington."  This  seems  to  indicate  that  at 
the  time  this  pamphlet  was  printed  (  1 846  )  the  original  draft  of  the 
Vermont  Declaration  of  Independence  was  extant. 

The  conventions  of  January  and  June,  1777,  appointed  committees 
to  draft  the  declaration  and  other  papers  here  set  forth  and  directed 
that  they  should  be  printed  in  the  newspapers,  and  they  did  in  fact 
appear  in  the  Connecticut  Courant  in  1  777.  In  the  fac-simile  reprint 
of  "  Early  Vermont  Conventions,  1775-1777",  so  carefully  edited  by 
the  Hon.  Redfield  Proctor  in  1 904,  on  page  1 4,  the  conclusion  is 
reached  that  the  Dr.  Jonas  Fay  records  are  "  the  original  and  official 
record  of  the  proceedings  of  these  meetings  or  conventions."  Is  it  not 
possible  that  among  the  papers  referred  to  by  Mr.  Eastman  as  having 
been  found  by  Mr.  Stevens  at  Washington  was  the  original  draft 
of  the  Vermont  Declaration  of  Independence  made  by  the  committees 
under  order  of  the  conventions  and  furnished  to  the  Connecticut 
Courant  for  publication  ?  This  declaration  is  an  important  State  docu- 
ment and  if  in  existence  should  be  secured  and  placed  in  the  State 
archives,  where  the  original  records  of  the  convention  that  adopted  the 
Declaration  are  now  deposited. 

E.  M.  G. 


Deficiencies  in  our  History 

A  Reprint 


DEFICIENCIES    IN    OUR    HISTORY 


AN 


ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


VERMONT  HISTORICAL 


AND 


ANTIQUARIAN    SOCIETY, 

AT  MONTPELIER. 

OCTOBER  16,  1846. 


BY  JAMES  DAVIE  BUTLER, 
Professor  in  Norwich  University. 


MONTPELIER: 

EASTMAN  AND  DANFORTH. 
1846. 


Of  this  pamphlet  there  have  been  printed  three  hundred 

copies  at  the  EUm  Tree  Press,  Woodstock,  Vermont,  for 

Edward  M.  Goddard 

1910 


No. 


ADDRESS. 


Fellow  Citizens  of  Vermont : 

The  life  of  old  nations  is  memory.    In  the  old  world  travellers  daily 

(y-y  behold  great  events  and  the  scenes  of  them — not  only  commemorated 

2  by  monuments,  but  canonized  by  chapels  and  altars. 

oo      Young  nations  live  in  hope  rather  than  in  memory.  (  While  pressing 

<M  forward  to  those  things  which  are  before,  they  forget  those  which  are 

O  behind.)   This  truth  finds  many  exemplifications  in  our  history. 

Q      A  circular  was  recently  sent  to  every  town  in  Vermont  that  was 

incorporated  when  our  State  independence  was  declared,  requesting 

'"'-     information  concerning  the    71    signers  of  that  declaration.    It  was 

vouchsafed  only  one  answer.    Our  declaration  of  State  independence 

tj     was  never  published  in  this  State  until  last  summer,  and  then  only  in 

^      fugitive  newspapers.    The  papers  of  our  first  and  most  memorable 

0      Governor  were  sold  to  a  pedlar  with  paper  rags. 

I*  The  cannon  taken  (in  defence  of  our  frontier)  at  Bermington  lie 

unclaimed  at  Washington.    The  maps,  captured  at  the  same  place, 

t         were  used  as  curtains  until  all,  save  one,  perished.    The  grenadiers' 

\}     arms  and  drum  there  taken,  and  presented  as  a  trophy  to  our  State 

H^     council  were  received  with  a  promise  that,  according  to  the  donor's 

request  they  should  be  kept  in  the  council-chamber  as  a  memorial  to 

the  glorious  action  fought  at  Wallumscoik.    But  this  trophy  has  been 

vilely  thrown  away. 

Properly  speaking  we  have  no  rostrum.  A  rostrum  is  a  speaker's 
stand  begirt  with  memorials  of  vanquished  foes.  We  have  none. 

Facts  such  as  these  prepare  us  to  expect  a  universal  apathy  in  regard 
to  our  history,  and  move  our  special  wonder  that  we  can  boast  so 
many  historians,  and  several  worthy  of  no  common  praise. 

It  is  no  great  discredit  to  our  historians  that  they  are  in  many  respects 


6 

deficient,  since  they  were  forced  to  make  brick  without  straw,  the 
collections  needful  for  the  adequate  execution  of  their  task,  which  are 
still  imperfect,  not  having  been  fairly  begun,  when  most  of  our 
chroniclers  wrote. 

It  is  simply  because  no  one  else  could  be  found  to  stand  in  the  gap, 
that  I  venture  to  appear  before  you  at  this  time,  inasmuch  as  I  must 
appear  to  the  same  disadvantage  with  our  historians.  1  have,  indeed, 
had  access  to  sources  of  knowledge  which  were  hid  from  their  eyes ; 
but  I  have  enjoyed  this  privilege  only  a  few  days,  and  under  the 
double  pressure  of  ministerial  and  professional  labors,  as  well  as  with 
one  foot  on  the  cradle,  in  the  judgment  of  many  a  much  greater 
impediment. 

The  subject  which  I  would  invite  you  to  consider,  is  certain 
deficiencies  in  our  State  histories. 

The  controversy  of  Vermont  with  New  York  has  never  been 
described  as  its  merits,  and  the  richness  of  materials  regarding  it, 
demand.  I  have  drawn  up  a  list — which,  pardon  me,  I  do  not  mean 
to  read — of  fifty  questions  concerning  it  which  demand  elucidation. 
No  historian  hints — what  every  historian  should  have  clearly  shown — 
that  that  struggle  was  not  merely  about  the  price  of  land,  but  a  conflict 
between  New  England  and  New  York  principles — those  of  the 
Puritan  and  of  the  Patroon ; — between  our  township  system,  with 
local  elections  and  taxes,  and  New  York  centralization. 

I  am  constrained  to  pass  in  utter  silence,  however,  the  manifold 
short-comings  of  our  writers  in  respect  to  our  relations  to  all  our  sister 
States. 

The  part  Vermont  took  in  the  Revolution  is  rather  shadowed  forth 
than  distinctly  traced  by  our  historians. 

They  claim  for  us  indeed  a  share  in  the  taking  of  Ticonderoga,  as 
well  as  in  the  siege  of  St.  Johns ;  in  the  battle  near  Bennington,  and 
perhaps  in  the  taking  of  Burgoyne. 

But,  though  much  is  said  of  battles  as  far  oS  as  Braddock's  defeat, 
instead  of  a  distinctive  account  of  Vermont's  military  career,  her 
exploits  are  so  blended  with  those  of  the  continentals,  or  so  imperfectly 
detailed,  as  to  lose  all  individuality. 

As  to  the  capture  of  Ticonderoga,  it  is  said,  men  from  Connecticut 
came  to  Vermont  to  engage  Ethan  Allen  in  the  business.    It  is  not 


hinted  that  Allen  had  ever  before  thought  of  such  a  project,  even  in 
his  dreams.  What  is  the  fact  ?  Allen's  own  testimony  is,  that  when  the 
men  from  Connecticut  arrived  in  Bennington,  he  and  other  officers  of 
the  Green  Mountain  Boys  were  already  deliberating  upon  a  project 
for  surprising  that  fortress ;  though  whether  such  a  measure  would  be 
agreeable  to  Congress  or  not,  they  could  not  for  certain  determine. 

A  full  month  before  any  step  was  taken  in  Connecticut,  for  seizing 
Ticonderoga,  an  agent,  recently  dispatched  through  Vermont  to 
Montreal,  thus  wrote  the  committee  of  correspondence  in  Boston : 

"March  29,  1775. 

"One  thing  I  must  mention  to  be  kept  as  a  profound  secret.  The 
port  of  Ticonderoga  must  be  seized  as  soon  as  possible,  should 
hostilities  be  committed  by  the  king's  troops.  The  people  of  the  New 
Hampshire  Grants  have  engaged  to  do  this  business ;  and,  in  my 
opinion,  they  are  the  most  proper  persons  for  this  job." 

"  This  will  effectually  curb  this  province,  and  all  the  troops  that  may 
be  sent  here." 

This  laist  particular,  the  importance  of  Ticonderoga  as  the  key  alike 
of  New  England  and  Canada;  the  usefulness  of  the  cannon  there 
taken,  at  the  siege  of  Boston  and  elsewhere ;  its  having  been  thought 
worth  sacrificing  thousands  of  lives ;  its  being  surprised  by  men  destitute 
of  bayonets,  of  a  single  bayonet, — are  particulars  which  one  wonders 
our  historians  have  not  made  more  prominent,  since  all  but  one-sixth 
of  those,  who  effected  the  surprise,  were  Green  Mountain  Boys,  and 
this  was  the  first  offensive  exploit  in  the  war  of  our  Independence. 

The  readiness  of  the  Vermonters  for  the  Revolution,  even  before 
hostilities  began,  is  indubitable,  but  is  not  made  manifest  in  our 
histories. 

Among  Slade's  State  papers,  indeed,  there  is  an  assurance  from 
the  Vermonters  given  to  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts  four 
weeks  before  the  affray  at  Lexington,  that  "  they  shall  always  be  ready 
(or  add  and  assistance  to  those  States,  if,  by  the  dispensations  of 
Providence,  they  should  be  called  thereto."  I  have  found  no  allusion 
to  this  assurance  in  any  history. 

But  the  preparation  of  heart  in  Vermont  for  hostilities  is  attested  by 
more  particular  evidence  even  than  this.  Seven  weeks  before  the  1 9th 
of  April,  Ethan  Allen  wrote  a  leading  man  in  Connecticut,  promising 


a  regiment  of  Green  Mountain  Boys  in  case  of  war.  This  letter  is  still 
extant  in  manuscript. 

More  than  half  a  year  before  the  war  of  the  Revolution  began,  a 
rumor  that  the  British  had  slain  six  men,  and  seized  a  depot  of  powder, 
electrified  New  England.  A  chronicler  of  those  times  says :  "  The 
heads  of  the  Bennington  body,  of  2000  armed  men,  forthwith  gave 
out  orders  that  they  should  get  ready  to  march." 

Allow  me  next  a  glance  at  the  invasion  of  Canada.  None  of  our 
later  historians  give  due  credit  to  the  diplomatic  address  of  our  Fay  and 
Ira  Allen,  which  contributed  to  the  capture  of  the  British  fleet.  After 
the  fall  of  Montgomery,  General  Wooster,  who  was  sent  for,  to  the 
command  of  the  forces  besieging  Quebec,  in  despair  of  other  assistance, 
wrote  thus  to  Warner  in  Vermont:  ( 2,  1 62 : )  " Let  me  beg  of  you 
to  collect  immediately  as  many  men  as  you  can,  and  somehow  get  into 
this  country,  and  stay  with  us  till  we  can  have  relief  from  the  colonies. 
Let  your  men  be  sent  on  by  tens,  twenties,  thirties,  forties  or  fifties,  as 
they  can  be  collected."  Within  eleven  days  from  the  writing  of  this 
letter  at  Montreal,  in  the  dead  of  winter,  Green  Mountain  Boys  were 
on  their  march  for  Quebec.  In  about  two  months  the  force  of  effective 
men  before  that  city  was  almost  doubled  by  reinforcements  under 
Warner.  But  for  this  sezisonable  relief,  the  retreat  from  Canada  might 
have  been  a  rout,  or  our  whole  army  there  have  been  forced  to 
capitulate,  ( or,  to  use  a  phrase  very  common  soon  after,  might  have 
been  Burgoyned.) 

Some  of  our  histories  mention  the  arrival  of  twenty-seven  men  from 
Massachusetts  before  Quebec.  They  are  all  silent  respecting — what 
it  much  more  behoved  them  to  relate — ten  times  as  many  recruits  from 
our  own  State.  Nor  do  they,  with  one  exception,  so  much  as  once 
mention  the  name  of  Warner  in  all  their  notices  of  the  winter  campaign 
in  Canada. 

In  relation  to  Allen's  attack  on  Montreal,  our  historians  say  that 
Brown  was,  by  some  meeins,  prevented  from  co-operating  with  Allen 
as  he  had  agreed  to  do.  The  question,  by  what  means,  still  remains 
unanswered.  The  answer  to  it  might  show  that  the  blame  of  Allen's 
finding  captivity  for  himself,  when  he  sought  the  capture  of  Montreal, 
is  not  to  be  charged  solely  to  his  own  fool-hardiness. 

Our  State   histories  say  nothing  of  the  supplies  forwarded  from 


Bennington  to  Ticonderoga,  m  1  776,  at  a  time  when,  but  for  such 
assistance,  that  fortress  might  have  been  lost. 

TTie  next  day,  after  receiving  a  call  for  flour,  the  Committee 
answered,  that,  without  an  hour's  delay,  they  had  sought  for  wheat, 
and  found  1 000  bushels  ;  would  send  on  what  was  ground  forthwith, 
and  the  rest  as  soon  as  it  could  be  manufactured.  They  add  these  words 
to  the  commander  at  Ticonderoga : "  It  is  difficult  to  transport  what  we 
have  already  on  hand ;  for  our  militia,  even  before  we  received  your 
letter  asking  assistance,  left  us  almost  to  a  man,  mzurched,  and  have 
doubtless  joined  you  before  this. 

This  relief  was  afforded  at  a  crisis  when  the  tories  about  Albany  cut 
off  all  hopes  of  succor  from  that  quarter,  and  when  the  troops  at 
Ticonderoga  had  bread  but  for  sixteen  days,  and  were  expecting  to 
be  blockaded. 

Our  historians  say  that  on  the  evacuation  of  Ticonderoga,  our 
Council  of  Safety  resolved  to  raise  all  the  troops  they  could  to  act 
against  Burgoyne. 

None  of  them,  however,  save  Ira  Allen,  tell  us  how,  with  an  empty 
treasury,  they  could  raise  an  army,  as  it  were,  by  a  stamp  of  the  foot. 
The  secret  of  this  miracle — a  regiment  made  ready  for  war  in  a 
fortnight — was  an  expedient  proposed  by  Ira  Allen  himself,  (  at  sun- 
rise, after  a  night  spent  in  devismg  ways  and  means ),  namely :  to 
confiscate  instantly  all  the  property  of  all  tories,  except  such  articles  as 
humanity  required  for  their  families. 

But  even  Allen  fails  to  bring  out  fully  the  alacrity  and  energy  of  our 
fathers  during  this  critical  campaign.  A  man  in  Connecticut  vmtes  that 
agents  of  Vermont  had  to  come  thither  to  buy  arms  to  the  amount  of 
£4000 ;  and,  failing  to  obtain  them,  had  gone  further — with  what 
success  is  to  this  day  unknown.  The  militia  of  this  State  were  chiefly 
at  Ticonderoga,  yet  Warner  writes :  "  I  should  be  glad  if  a  few  hills 
of  com  unhoed  should  not  be  a  motive  sufficient  to  detain  men  at 
home".  Such  was  the  rally  that  St.  Clair,  a  few  days  after,  writes 
thus :  "  The  Vermont  Convention  have  given  such  proofs  of  their 
readiness  to  concur  in  any  measure  for  the  public  safety  that  it  would 
be  impertinent  to  press  them  now. 

Our  historians  would  have  made  it  plainer  what  part  Vermont  had 
in  the  taking  of  Burgoyne,  if  they  had  described  more  fully  how 


10 

sacrificingly  she  removed  or  destroyed  all  crops,  cattle,  and  carriages, 
that  were  in  danger  oi  being  seized  for  his  use,  and  thus  took  off  his 
chariot  wheels.  They  might  have  shown  the  revolution  in  Burgoyne's 
feelings  effected  by  the  battle  of  Bennington,  and  the  part  Vermont 
was  thought  by  him  to  have  played  in  that  action,  had  they  contrasted 
two  of  his  letters,  one  written  just  before,  the  other  just  after  that 
battle.  Aug.  1 2  he  writes  to  the  commander  of  the  expedition  against 
Vermont :  "  Try  the  affections  of  the  country — cross  the  mountains  to 
Rockingham  and  Brattleboro — bring  me  I  300  horses  or  more."  Did 
he  know  by  instinct  that  this  State  was  a  nursery  of  good  horses  ? 

August  20,  eight  days  afterwards,  he  writes:  "The  Heimpshire 
grants  in  particular,  a  country  unpeopled  and  almost  unknown  in  the 
last  war,  now  abounds  in  the  most  active  and  most  rebellious  race 
of  the  continent,  and  hangs  like  a  gathering  storm  upon  my  left." 

Truly  he  needed  not  send  again  to  try  the  affections  of  such  a 
country ! 

The  exertions  of  Vermont  against  Burgoyne  are  liable  to  be  under- 
rated, because  our  histories  pass  in  silence  the  false  rumors  which  then 
extensively  prevailed,  and  had  all  the  effect  of  realities.  Ticonderoga 
was  evacuated  by  unanimous  vote  of  a  full  council  of  war.  It  was 
reported  by  more  than  one  that  he  could  tell  when  that  fortress  was 
sold,  and  for  how  much.  One  hundred  and  twenty-eight  cannon  were 
there  lost.  This  number  was  exaggerated  to  300.  No  artillery  men 
were  there  slain  or  captured.  It  was  rumored  that  none  of  them 
escaped.  The  British  built  no  fortifications  in  Castleton,  nor  were  they 
there  in  great  force.  But  the  rumor  was  that  3000  and  then  6000 
of  them  were  fortifying  there,  and  that  with  cannon.  They  never, 
unless  by  scouts,  penetrated  further  east  than  Castleton.  Tidings  crossed 
the  mountain  announcing,  first,  that  they  were  at  Rutland,  then  nine 
miles  east  of  it  on  the  road  to  No.  4,  and  still  pushing  on.  Burgoyne 
never  sent  a  detachment  against  any  place  north  of  Rockingham. 
Common  fame  declared  his  myrmidons  on  their  march  for  Royalton 
and  Newbury.  Contemporaries  speak  of  this  rumor — driving  families 
by  scores,  and  cattle  by  hundreds,  to  flee  across  the  Connecticut.  No 
diversion  in  Burgoyne's  favor  was  attempted  at  Boston:  he  had  no 
intention  to  cross  New  England  to  Boston ;  but  both  these  schemes 
were  firmly  believed  by  not  a  few. 


Amid  rumors  such  as  these,  and  perhaps  others  more  appalling,  the 
memory  of  which  may  have  perished,  men's  hearts  failing  them  for 
looking  after  those  things  which  were  coming,  the  Green  Mountain 
Boys  heard  a  voice  ringing  in  their  ears — 

"  Leave  the  harvest  to  perish  on  the  field  where  it  grows. 
And  the  reaping  of  wheat  for  the  reaping  of  fots : ' ' 

and  they  were  deaJ  to  all  other  voices. 

In  describing  the  operations  at  Lake  George  landmg,  by  which  the 
vessels,  in  which  Burgoyne  might  have  retreated,  were  captured,  both 
Williams  and  Thompson  leave  Warner's  name  unmentioned.  But 
Warner  was  the  commander  of  that  expedition,  (3.729.)  Those 
whose  names  are  mentioned — Brown,  Woodbridge  and  Johnson — 
were  his  subalterns. 

Herrick,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  Green  Mountain  Rangers  in 
this  expedition,  is  also  passed  in  silence  by  our  best  historians,  though 
he  was  honored  with  a  special  letter  of  thanks,  not  only  from  the 
Vermont  council,  but  from  General  Gates  at  the  head  of  the  continental 
army. 

Reading  Williams'  history  in  boyhood,  I  used  to  wonder  what 
became  of  that  thorn  in  our  side — the  British  garrison  in  Ticonderoga 
— after  Burgoyne's  surrender.  I  have  not  found  what  I  sought  in  any 
other  historian.  The  fact  is,  that  that  garrison  retreated  into  Canada ; 
but  not  without  forty-nine  men  of  their  rear,  as  well  as  horses,  cattle, 
and  boats,  in  great  numbers,  being  taken  by  fifty  Vermont  Rangers. 
Forty-nine  regulars  taken  by  fifty  militia.  A  fact  like  this  is  worth 
something  to  an  advocate  for  the  efficiency  of  militia. 

Such  were  the  exertions  of  Vermont,  during  this  campaign,  as  to 
prevent  the  Council  from  getting  the  new-made  constitution  printed, 
(3.  84  1 . )  Other  results  of  the  campaign  are  thus  stated  by  Gov. 
Chittenden : 

"  Though  there  were  plentiful  crops  on  the  ground,  the  inhabitants 
were  prevented  from  securing  any  considerable  part  of  them.  Before 
they  left  the  service  against  Burgoyne,  the  season  was  so  far  advanced 
as  to  put  it  out  of  their  power  to  make  preparations  for  a  crop  of 
winter  grain  on  which  they  had  ever  had  the  greatest  dependence. 
The  principal  part  of  them,  therefore,  aure  reduced  to  an  Indian  cake. 


12 

in  scant  proportion  to  the  number  of  their  families.  Their  sheep  and 
flax  having  been  destroyed  by  the  enemy,  or  having  otherw^ise  perished, 
their  bellies  and  backs  are  become  co-sufferers." 

"  In  this  deplorable  situation  they  remain  firm  and  unshaken ;  and, 
being  generally  well  armed  and  accoutered,  are  ready  in  any  emergency, 
and  on  the  shortest  notice,  to  face  and  encounter  their  inveterate  foe — 
undaunted. " 

There  is  much  history,  of  the  domestic  or  defensive  military  prepara- 
tions of  Vermont,  yet  unprinted. 

Fragmentary  notices  of  forts  are,  indeed,  scattered  through  our 
Gazetteer,  under  the  words  Hubbardton,  Pittsford,  Rutland,  Castle- 
ton,  Bethel,  &c.  But  the  system,  of  which  they  were  a  part,  is  not 
explained  in  our  histories.  There  are  manuscript  records — of  head- 
quarters in  Rutland,  often  garrisoned  by  hundreds, — of  branch-forts 
with  palisades  or  pickets,  flankers  and  barracks  for  150  men, — of 
scouts  reconnoitering  the  woods,  passing  from  fort  to  fort,  seizing 
suspected  persons,  helping  or  forcing  bold  settlers  to  remove  within 
the  lines  of  defense, — destroying  such  crops  as  they  could  not  secure 
from  the  enemy,  and  continuing  their  excursions  even  in  winter  on 
snowshoes. 

In  this  service,  it  is  recorded  that  one-sixth  part  of  the  able-bodied 
men  (  on  an  average,  one  from  every  family  )  were  at  times,  employed. 
When  special  danger  was  apprehended,  reinforcements  were  for- 
warded on  horseback.  Enlistments  were  encouraged  by  the  bounty  of 
a  township  of  land  for  each  company.  Provisions  were  obtained  by 
requiring  each  town  to  send  on  thirty  pounds  of  pork  with  each 
recruit — by  issuing  press- warrants  for  horses  and  empty  bags,  and  by 
causing  the  highway  tax  to  be  worked  out  as  early  as  possible,  to 
facilitate  the  transportation  of  supplies. 

Pittsford  was  not,  as  has  been  supposed,  always  the  most  northern 
post.  In  March  and  April,  I  778,  a  considerable  force  was  posted  in 
New  Haven,  (4.  73.)  This  may  have  been  one  of  the  new  line  of 
forts  which  Vermont  was  engaged  in  erecting  when  Congress  with- 
drew all  the  national  spades  and  pickaxes,  and  the  enemy's  vessels 
were  cruising  on  the  lake. 

Particulars  such  as  these  are  not  the  pomp  and  pride  of  war ;  but 
they  are  worthy  to  be  known,  though  unrecorded  by  our  historians. 


13 

Let  us  next  remark  certain  deficiencies  m  our  histories  with  regard 
to  the  tories — the  worst  foes  of  our  fathers. 

From  the  best  histories  of  Vermont  one  would  scarcely  believe 
there  was  such  a  class  of  men,  for  their  name  is  seldom  mentioned — 
never  by  Thompson,  with  manifest  reference  to  Vermont.  Doubtless 
they  were  fewer  than  the  British  hoped  when  they  struggled  so  per- 
severingly,  by  threats  and  promises,  to  make  Vermont  a  crown- 
province — and  than  Governor  Morris  feared,  when  he  thus  wrote  to 
Congress,  (3.  319:)  "  Disagreeable  as  it  may  be  to  tell  or  to  hear 
this  truth,  yet  a  truth  it  is,  that  very  many  of  those  villains — the  Ver- 
monters — only  want  a  New  England  reason,  or,  if  you  like  the 
expression  better,  a  plausible  pretext  to  desert  the  American  States, 
New  Vermont  among  the  rest.  " 

Yet,  in  a  single  act  of  the  Legislature,  there  is  a  list  of  1 08  tories 
from  twenty-nine  towns.  Half  the  men  in  Strafford  and  Thetford  fled 
to  Burgoyne — others  repaired  to  the  British  on  their  march  to  Ben- 
nington. The  expenses  of  war  and  government  were,  in  a  great  part 
defrayed  by  the  avails  of  tory  estates,  though  sold  at  a  sacrifice  by 
auction. 

Records  are  not  wanting  of  tories  that  were  laid  under  bonds,  or 
imprisonment,  for  concealing  arms  and  ammunition,— for  spying  out 
the  nakedness  of  the  land  and  betraying  it  to  the  enemy ;  of  some 
that  were  banished — of  others  overtaken  and  killed  as  they  were 
fleeing.  The  most  unique  punishment  to  which  they  were  subjected 
was  decreed  by  the  Council  at  Bennington,  in  January,  1  778,  after 
this  fashion  :  "  Let  the  overseer  of  the  tories  detach  ten  of  them, 
with  proper  officers  to  take  the  charge,  and  march  them  in  two  distinct 
files,  from  this  place,  through  the  Green  Mountains,  for  breaking  a 
path  through  the  snow.  Let  each  man  be  provided  with  three  days 
provisions.  Let  them  march  and  tread  the  snow,  in  said  road,  of 
suitable  width  for  a  sleigh  with  a  span  of  horses.  Order  them  to  return, 
marching  in  the  same  manner,  with  all  convenient  speed,  (4.  32. ) 
Let  them  march  at  six  o'clock  tomorrow  morning,  " — early  rising. 

The  practice  of  confiscating  the  property  of  tories  originated  in 
Vermont,  though  it  was  imitated  by  most  other  States.  In  vain  did  the 
sufferers  endeavor  to  take  advantage  of  certain  stipulations  in  their 
favor  in  the  terms  of  Burgoyne's  surrender.    Our  fathers  decided  that 


14 

none  could  be  so  benefitted  but  those  who  were  at  that  time  in  his 
camp.  Toryism  snapped  asunder  the  bands  of  society.  It  is  said,  "Trust 
ye  not  in  any  brother,  for  every  brother  may  utterly  supplant ".  It  tended 
to  make  life  here  what  it  was  in  France  during  the  Reign  of  Terror — 
the  mfinite  conjugation  of  the  verb  suspect.  How  many  were 
wrongfully  suspected !    How  many  were  filled  with  revengefulness ! 

Our  histories  can  never  do  justice  to  those  to  whom  we  owe  our 
independence,  till  they  tell  us,  as  they  have  not  yet  done,  how 
unfalteringly  they  braved  intestine  war — personal,  as  well  as  public 
enmity. 

Our  histories  relate  few  Indian  depredations  during  the  Revolution. 
The  burning  of,  now  and  then,  a  single  house — the  capture  of  a  few 
prisoners,  usually  two  or  three  at  a  time,  and  the  destruction  of  Royalton 
— are  the  substance  of  their  accounts.  There  was  little  more  to  relate. 

But  much  more  was  to  be  expected  and  was  expected.  The  Indians 
had  desolated  so  meuiy  towns  in  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts, 
and  three  times  attacked  the  first  settlement  in  Vermont,  though  in  the 
extreme  south  of  the  State, — why  should  they  not  fall  with  redoubled 
fury  and  frequency  upon  those  who  were  more  in  their  neighborhood, 
and  had  even  ventured  as  near  them  as  New  Haven  and  Newbury  ? 
They  were  stimulated  to  attack  our  frontiers  by  Johnson's  and  Carlton's 
intrigues,  and  appeals  to  their  hopes  and  their  fears.  They  were 
enticed  to  the  same  enterprise  by  the  arts  of  fugitive  tories,  burning  for 
revenge  and  plunder — eager  to  show  them  the  way  to  slaughter. 
Doubtless  our  possession  of  Ticonderoga,  at  first,  and  afterwards  the 
cutting  of  Hazen's  road,  tended  to  curb  their  ravages  ;  but  other  circum- 
stances, though  they  have  eluded  the  research  of  our  historians,  con- 
tributed, perhaps,  even  in  a  greater  degree,  to  the  safety  of  our 
frontiers.  I  will  glance  at  one  or  two.  As  we  have  cJready  seen,  our 
preparations  for  defence  were  more  efficient  than  represented  in  histories. 

At  the  outset  of  the  Revolution  Ethan  Allen  dispatched  messengers 
to  win  over  the  Indians — at  least,  to  neutrality.  At  the  same  time  he 
sent  them  a  characteristic  letter  in  this  style : 

"  I  know  how  to  shoot  and  ambush  like  Indians.  My  foes  stand  all 
along  close  together,  rank  and  file.  My  men  and  your  men  shall  eat 
and  drink  together,  and  fight  together  against  those  who  first  began  to 
kill  us.    If  you  wish  to  remain  in  peace,  you  need  not  fight.  But  come 


15 

and  see  us.  I  will  give  you  whatever  you  want — bread,  knives, 
tomahawks,  paint,  belts,  blankets,  money,  rum." 

Thus  and  by  other  means,  many  Indians  were  induced  to  come  to 
Newbury  throughout  the  war,  some  to  settle  in  that  region — many  to 
get  presents — many  to  trade,  and  some  to  enter  our  service  as  scouts 
and  spies. 

Some  of  the  Indian  chiefs  who  come  to  Newbury  were  sent  to 
Washington's  army,  and  there  treated  with  marked  attention,  as  well 
to  gain  intelligence  from  them,  as  to  convince  them  of  our  power  and 
good  will.  Other  chiefs  furnished  with  a  list  of  questions  for  which 
they  were  to  procure  answers,  were  sent  as  spies  into  Canada,  and  the 
intelligence  thus  procured  was  highly  valued  by  Gates,  Schuyler  and 
Washington.  On  the  whole,  Indian  incursions  may  not  have  done  us 
more  haim,  than  the  information  they  furnished,  as  to  the  disposition  of 
the  Canadians,  the  forts,  forces,  reinforcements,  supplies,  measures  and 
projects  of  the  enemy  did  us  good. 

Though  a  hundred  letters  are  extant  concerning  our  relations  to  the 
Indians  at  this  time,  I  must  content  myself  with  one  extract  from  one 
written  by  General  Bailey  at  Newbury,  many  years  after  the  close  of 
the  war : 

"  I  could  not  with  safety  leave  the  frontier  where  I  was  settled  and 
join  the  army.  I  thought  I  could  be  of  more  service  to  our  cause  by 
securing  an  extensive  frontier  from  the  depredations  of  the  Canada 
Indians,  which  by  making  friendship  with  them  I  effected,  for  at  least 
200  miles." 

"  My  exertions  were  such  that  I  was  watched  and  waylaid  night  and 
day,  by  the  enemy  from  Canada — my  house  rifled,  papers  destroyed, 
son  carried  captive,  and  maltreated,  only  because  he  was  my  son,  and 
would  not  discover  to  them  how  his  father  obtained  intelligence  of 
their  movements.  To  the  close  of  the  war  I  was  employed  by 
Washington  to  keep  friendship  with  the  Indians,  and  gain  intelligence 
of  the  enemy  in  Canada. " 

It  has  lately  transpired  that  President  Wheelock  interceded  in  our 
behalf,  with  his  former  pupil,  Brandt,  the  Indian  chief,  and  that  not 
without  success.  Moreover,  proof  is  not  wanting  that  the  British 
Colonel  Johnson  was  taken  prisoner  by  John  Warner,  but  released  on 
condition  of  the  Indians  being  restrained  from  Vermont.    But  our 


16 

frontier  settlements,  however  safe,  were  by  no  meahs  secure, — 
rather  out  of  danger  than  free  from  apprehensions.  One  of  our  his- 
torians narrates  a  panic  in  Windham  County  ; — he  might  have  spoken 
of  another  in  Windsor  County,  when  the  inhabitants  along  White 
River  fled,  many  of  them  by  night,  lighted  by  brands  of  fire,  down 
the  river  to  Lebanon ;  and  of  another  in  Orange  County,  (4.  107.) 
when,  says  an  eye  witness,  families  are  this  moment  rushing  into 
Newbury,  and  for  sixty  miles  they  are  upon  a  doubt  whether  to 
remove  or  not. 

Women  yet  live  who  can  testify  of  such  days  when  they  lived  in 
fear  of  the  fate  of  Miss  McRea,  the  bride  of  Ft.  Edward,  that  Ger- 
trude of  Wyommg  in  real  life, — when  every  rustle  of  a  shaken  leaf 
seemed  an  Indian  tread ;  every  tree  an  Indian  covert — every  window 
a  mark  for  his  rifle,  every  hamlet  fully  assured  that  it  was  singled  out, 
above  all  others,  as  the  victim  of  the  savage. 

The  relation  sustained  by  our  fathers  to  Indians  and  tories,  as  well 
as  their  defensive  measures  having  been  slightly  noticed,  and  their 
conflicts  against  the  British  so  blended  with  those  of  the  Continentals, 
by  our  historians, — it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  part  Vermont, 
took  in  the  military  exploits  of  the  Revolution  is  yei  to  be  written. 

I  cannot  speak  as  I  would  of  the  negotiations  with  the  British  in 
Canada,  which  turned  the  last  two  years  of  the  war  into  diplomatic 
intrigues,  but  I  must  not  pass  them  unnoticed. 

The  right  of  Vermont  to  adopt  policy  for  power,  when  Massachu- 
setts and  New  Hampshire  were  plotting  a  Poland-like  partition  of 
her  territory, — when  every  continental  soldier  turned  his  back  upon 
her, — when  New  York  had  no  voice  save  to  cry  confiscation, — when 
an  army  as  large  as  Burgoyne's  was  concentrating  against  her  alone, 
can  scarcely  be  doubted.  But  for  such  a  course,  the  fate  of  Royalton 
would  have  been  that  of  all  her  towns. 

Vermont  would  have  yielded  to  Britain  sooner  than  to  New  York. 
Some  have  hence  taken  occasion  to  say  that  Vermont  was  inclined  to 
yield  to  Britain,  as  if  because  one  evil  is  greater  than  another  the  less 
evil  is  a  good, — as  if  because  Andre  prefered  being  shot  to  being 
hung  we  should  infer  that  he  wished  to  be  shot. 

Our  historians  have  not  failed  to  refute  this  slander.  They  have 
also  related  how  the  negotiations  with  Canada  drove  Congress  to 


17 

acknowledge  the  Independence  of  Vermont,  and  how  they  kept  an 
army  as  large  as  Burgoyne's  inactive.  It  might  have  been  added,  that 
a  few  soft  words  rendered  repeated  invasions,  full  of  sound  and  fury, 
though  carried  as  far  as  Burgoyne's,  so  fruitless,  as  to  resemble  oceans 
into  tempests  rocked  to  waft  a  feather,  or  to  fulfil  an  old  saying  in  a 
new  sense — 

"  The  King  of  France  with  forty  thousand  men. 
Marched  up  a  hill  and  then — marched  down  again. " 

The  venerable  Chipman,  in  the  life  of  his  yet  more  venerable 
brother,  has  broken  a  lance  not  without  a  wound,  though  in  his  old 
age,  against  the  assailants  of  our  leaders  in  their  graves.  From  his 
reasoning  it  seems  clear,  that  the  Vermont  diplomatists  never,  in  all 
the  armistice,  professed  loyalty  to  the  crown,  never  lifted  a  finger  to 
reconcile  any  man  to  it,  and  that  nothing  has  been  proved  against 
them  which  is  inconsistent  with  their  avowed  objects,  namely,  to  keep 
the  British  army  inactive,  and  to  prevail  upon  Congress  to  vote  the 
admission  of  Vermont  into  the  Union  as  a  1 4th  State.  This  sort  of 
negative  defence  of  the  Green  Mountain  Chiefs  is  enough  for  their 
acquital.  Another  may  be  made  of  a  more  positive  character  by  means 
of  documents  to  which  our  historians  do  not  seem  to  have  had  access. 

Years  before,  charges  of  toryism  were  brought  against  Vermont  by 
those  who  were  not  authorized  to  cast  the  first  stone,  and  whose 
principal  reason  for  thinking  her  tory  was  that  they  had  done  so 
much  to  make  her  so. 

Our  truce  with  Canada  was  rather  a  help  than  a  hindrance  to  the 
last  great  struggle  of  the  war — the  operations  against  Cornwallis.  It 
was  either  unknown  to  Washington  or  understood  by  him  to  be  a 
political  manoeuvre.  In  the  midst  of  the  armistice  he  wrote  to  Stark, 
commander  in  the  northern  department :  "  I  doubt  not  that  your 
requisitions  to  call  forth  the  force  of  the  Green  Mountains  will  be 
attended  with  success."  Requisitions,  remember,  to  defend  New  York, 
their  bitterest  foe.  Stark's  reply  was,  that  his  requisitions  Were  attended 
with  success, — that  upon  a  sudden  alarm  five  hundred  and  fifty 
mounted  men  from  Vermont  joined  his  troops  in  a  few  hours.  Near 
the  beginning  of  the  armistice  Schuyler  had  written  to  Washington : 
"  It  is  believed,  that  large  offers  have  been  made  the  Hampshire  Grants, 
but  that  nothing  will  induce  the  bulk  of  them  to  desert  the  common  cause." 


18 

Washington  was  privy  to  the  secret  policy  of  Vermont  for  some 
time, — probably  more  than  a  month — before  the  surrender  of  Com- 
wallis.  This  fact,  stated  but  by  one  of  our  historians,  seems  to  have 
been  discredited  by  aU  the  rest.  It  is  established  by  a  letter,  long 
given  up  for  lost,  (  but  recently  discovered, )  and  so  alluded  to  by  our 
historians  as  to  excite  suspicions  that  they  had  never  seen  it.  Wash- 
ington, therefore,  does  not  appear  to  have  been  perplexed  by  a 
British  officer's  apology  for  killing  a  Vermonter  in  a  skirmish — an 
apology  which  enraged  Gen.  Stark  and  filled  Vermont  itself  from 
side  to  side,  with  a  tempest  of  indignation. 

The  only  evil  suggested  by  Washington  as  resulting  from  our 
diplomatic  intercourse  with  the  British  was  encouraging  them  to  over- 
rate the  proportion  of  tories  among  us.  But  what  was  this  encourage- 
ment to  that  they  would  have  taken  from  the  conquest  of  Vermont, 
which,but  for  being  amused  with  hopes,  they  would  have  accomplished? 
The  one  was  shadow  the  other  substance.  The  height  of  their 
expectation  was  not  greater  than  the  depth  of  their  disappointment. 

The  only  remaining  charge  seems  to  be  that  our  cabinet  acted  with 
bad  faith  toweurd  the  British.  But,  as  the  British  were  the  chief  sufferers 
by  our  policy,  they  would  have  been  first  to  cry  treason  had  there  been 
any  treason.  They  seem  to  have  viewed  themselves  as  worsted  by 
their  own  weapon,  diplomatic  finesse.  The  falsehoods  told  them  were 
not  palpable,  and  will  be  judged  tenderly  by  those  who  hold  strata- 
gems are  lawful  in  war,  and  that  it  cannot  be  wrong  to  deceive  him 
whom  it  is  right  to  kill.  The  Governor  of  Canada,  not  discouraged  by 
failures,  continued  this  pen  and  ink  warfare,  more  yeais  than  Troy  was 
besieged,  and  even  sent  to  Burlington  an  envoy,  who  is  plausibly 
supposed  to  have  been  his  late  Majesty,  George  the  Fourth. 

Was  it  not  then  worth  while  for  our  leaders  to  make  themselves  of 
no  reputation  for  a  time,  that  without  drawing  a  sword,  without 
thwarting  the  plans  of  Washington,  without  injustice  even  to  our 
enemies,  they  might  avert  the  extremest  peril  ?  Luther's  words  were 
half  battles,  theirs  were  more. 

In  all  our  histories  there  is  a  lack  of  characteristic  minutiae.  We  ask 
for  face-to-face  details,  we  receive  far  off  generalties  "where  every 
somethmg  bemg  blent  together  turns  to  a  wild  of  nothing." 

Seemingly  trifling  particulars  catch  our  eyes  as  we  gaze  at  a 


19 

landscape ;  they  affect  the  eye-witnesses  of  events — they  bring  the  light 
of  other  days  around  us  as  we  listen  to  the  narrative  of  old  age  ; — they 
are  the  sparkling  fountains — abstractions  are  the  vapid  stream. 

Some  writers  may  have  neglected  such  fragments,  deeming  it  beneath 
the  dignity  of  history  to  stoop  and  gather  them,  as  if  history,  like  the 
Pope  was  never  to  be  seen  except  gorgeous  with  trailing  robes,  or 
were  to  represent  nations,  as  some  picture  books  represent  kings  wear- 
ing crowns  and  holding  sceptres — even  in  bed.  So  far  as  the  suppres- 
sion of  picture-like  details  has  been  a  sin  of  ignorance,  it  is  to  be 
winked  at,  but  not  if  it  has  proceeded  from  scorning  them  as  nothing 
worth.  Which  of  our  historians  might  not  profitably  copy  the  following 
account  of  the  evacuation  of  Ticonderoga,  albeit  it  fell  from  the  lips  of 
a  negro : — 

"  About  I  I  o'clock  on  Saturday  night,  orders  were  given  by  our 
Colonel  to  parade.  We  immediately  obeyed.  He  then  ordered  our 
tents  struck  and  carried  to  the  battery.  On  doing  this,  the  orders  were 
to  take  up  our  packs  and  march,  which  we  also  did,  passed  the 
General's  house  on  lire,  marched  20  miles  without  a  halt,  and  then  had 
a  brush  with  the  enemy." 

How  shall  history  hold  the  mirror  up  to  nature  if  not  by  giving  us 
the  very  words  of  the  actors  in  bye  gone  times  ?  Things  cannot  indeed 
be  all  described,  then  the  world  would  not  contain  the  books  which 
would  be  written,  but  those  parts,  the  least  as  well  as  the  greatest, 
should  be  sought  out,  which  most  nearly  produce  the  effect  of  the  whole. 

If  the  ballad  writer  be  as  influential  as  the  legislator,  why  should  our 
historians  vsath  one  consent,  refuse  us,  even  in  their  notes  and  appen- 
dixes, a  single  specimen  of  the  popular  songs,  the  Marsailles  hymns, 
— indicted  by  Rowley  and  others— sung  at  the  crisis  of  our  destiny. 

Can  we  learn  as  much  in  regard  to  common  schools  at  an  early  day 
from  any  of  our  histories,  as  from  a  single  remark  made  to  me  by  a 
woman,  who  had  no  thought  of  telling  any  great  thing,  that  in  the 
winter  of  1  780,  her  brother  kept  a  school  in  one  of  the  two  rooms  in 
his  fathers  log  house  in  Sharon,  there  being  then  twenty-eight  families 
in  town  and  that  there  was  no  school  for  five  winters  afterwards  1 
Only  two  of  the  sixty-eight  settlers  in  Bennington  made  their  mark ; 
all  of  the  1 006  petitioners  to  King  George  wrote  their  names,  and 
Elkins,  a  boy  from  Peacham,  when  a  prisoner  in  England,  receiving 


20 

a  shilling  a  week  from  Dr.  Franklin,  paid  out  four  coppers  of  it  for 
tuition. 

Do  not  facts  like  these  throw  light  upon  the  popular  intelligence 
and  desire  of  knowledge  ? 

What  incident  in  our  histories  shows  the  inspiriting  effect  of  the 
Bennington  battle  so  strikingly  as  a  trifle  they  all  omit, — a  rumor  which 
straightway  ran  through  New  Hampshire,  that  Burgoyne  himself  was 
taken  at  Stillwater, — coming  events  cast  their  shadows  before. 

I  would  not  willingly  be  ignorant  that  in  1  764  there  were  only 
about  100  families  between  the  mountains  and  the  river — that  a 
post-boat  from  Canada  was  taken  soon  aiter  the  seizure  of  Ticonderoga 
— that  an  express  could  be  sent  from  Newbury  to  Boston  in  three 
days,  cannon  from  Lake  George  to  the  same  place  in  seventeen  days 
— that  the  Vermont  Uniform  was  green  with  red  facings — that  rum 
even  when  it  rose  to  $96,  continental  money,  a  gallon,  was  dealt  out 
in  the  rations, — that  Allen  gave  Warner  400  acres  of  land  for  cutting 
off  the  ear  of  a  Yorker — that  each  Vermonler  after  the  Bennington 
battle  received  $5  plunder  money.  Each  of  these  trifles  is  a  little 
window  through  which  we  can  look  into  the  distant  past. 

The  little  said  in  our  histories  in  relation  to  religion,  tends  to  disprove 
the  assertion  of  Dr.  Dwight,  that  "  our  first  settlers  were  chiefly  univer- 
salists  and  infidels."  There  is  much  to  disprove  it  in  the  following 
details.  Orthodox  ministers  were  early  settled  in  most  towns ;  sermons 
longer  than  we  can  bear,  and  as  searching  were  preached  at  the 
opening  of  every  State  Convention  and  Assembly; — requests  for 
prayers  abound  in  letters, — pamphlets  then  printed  have  beyond  all 
comparison  more  allusions  to  the  bible  than  to  all  other  books  together. 
When  one  would  put  General  Bailey  on  his  guard  against  tory  liers- 
in-wait,  he  dropped  in  his  path  a  paper  with  these  words  on  it,  "  The 
Philistines  be  upon  thee  Samson. " 

The  word  of  God  was  the  law-book  for  all  cases  falling  under  no 
statute,  and  sentences  were  given  according  to  its  enactments.  Where 
there  was  no  church  or  preacher,  meetings  were  held  under  trees  and 
in  private  houses:  such  an  assemblage  delayed  one  day  the  burning 
of  Royalton.  My  grand  mother  used  to  tell  me  that  during  the  battle 
of  Bennington,  she  and  many  others  were  met  for  prayer  within  the 
sound  of  cannon. 


21 

Our  writers  have  not  enough  availed  themselves  of  vivid  particulars 
by  way  of  indirect  description. 

What  can  give  us  a  better  idea  what  a  long  struggle  was  expected 
when  hostilities  begun,  or  how  our  people  rushed  to  the  war,  than 
these  words,  wnritten  one  week  after  the  bloodshed  at  Lexington  from 
that  quarter  to  this,  "  For  heaven's  sake,  pay  the  closest  attention  to 
sowing  and  planting ;  do  as  much  of  it  as  possible,  not  for  your  own 
families  merely.  Do  not  think  of  coming  down  country  to  fight." 
What  can  draw  and  color  more  to  the  life  the  want  of  all  things  useful 
in  war,  during  Burgoyne's  invasion  than  these  words  of  Stark,  written 
at  his  quarters  on  the  Connecticut : 

"  I  am  informed  that  the  enemy  have  left  Castleton  and  have  an 
intent  to  march  to  Bennington,  We  are  detained  here  a  good  deal  for 
bullet  moulds,  as  there  is  but  one  pair  in  town,  and  the  few  balls  sent 
on  by  the  State  go  but  a  little  way  in  supplying  the  whole." 

One  pair  of  bullet  moulds !  a  light  visible  result  significant  of  how 
many  things  not  so  visible. 

Such  incidents,  like  the  rude  strokes  in  charcoal-sketches,  produce 
more  effect  than  many  elaborate  line  engravings. 

The  impressiveness  of  our  history  is  weakened  because  a  thousand 
petty  circumstances  are  scattered  here  and  there  through  a  Gazetteer 
or  through  voluminous  documents  sometimes  in  widely  sundered 
archives,  like  the  elementary  constituents  of  Mosaic  work  instead  of 
being  fitly  framed  together  into  a  life-like  picture,  as  those  of  the  French 
Revolution  have  been  by  Carlyle, 

The  heroic  deeds  of  our  forefathers  seem  not  to  have  been  appre- 
ciated ;  sometimes  they  are  mentioned  as  things  of  course,  or  unmen- 
tioned  by  our  writers,  though  they  are  not  a  whit  behind  the  chiefest 
deeds  man  can  boast. 

Luther  when  the  Pope  burned  his  books,  burned  the  Pope's  bull. 
In  what  did  he  surpass  Allen's  retorting  the  setting  a  price  on  his  head 
by  New  York,  with  setting  the  price  on  the  head  of  a  New  York 
dignitary  ? 

At  Bennington,  a  Green  Mountain  Boy  struck  a  Hessian  officer's 
sword  from  his  hand  with  a  stick,  and  forced  him  to  make  his  file  of 
men  lay  down  their  arms.    How  few  know  that  hero's  name ! 

We  shall  always  remember  two  men  that  swam  the  Hellespont, — 


22 

the  one  from  vanity,  the  other  for  personal  gratiBcation  of  another  sort. 
We  are  in  danger  of  forgetting  a  citizen  of  our  own  who  swam  as 
broad  a  strait  at  Ticonderoga,  at  midnight,  threading  his  way  through 
a  hostile  fleet,  not  for  himself  but  for  his  country, — Richard  Wallace 
— worthy  to  bear  the  name  of  him  of  Scodand,  and  to  be  equalled 
with  him  in  renown. 

1  have  sometimes  thought  our  writers  particularly  oblivious  of  female 
heroism  as  displayed  in  our  history. 

A  French  maid  of  honor  who  lost  her  arm  by  foolishly  thrusting  it 
m  place  of  a  door-bar  to  protect  her  queen,  is  eulogized.  A  woman  of 
Vermont  suffered  the  same  loss,  defending  her  husband,  with  the  first 
weapon  that  offered  against  midnight  kidnappers,  and  is  passed  over  in 
silence. 

French  women  are  praised  for  digging  and  trundling  barrows  to  rear 
a  monument  of  national  fickleness.  The  similar  labors  of  Vermont 
women  striving  to  take  the  places  of  their  husbands  who  were  dying 
in  battle  are  more  than  half  forgotten. 

It  is  recorded  m  Scottish  history  that  Knox's  daughter  would  rather 
see  him  beheaded  and  catch  her  head  in  her  apron,  than  have  him 
turn  papist.  It  is  not  recorded  in  our  history  what  Vermont  mother 
used  her  apron  to  staunch  the  blood  of  her  wounded  son,  when  both 
of  them  still  every  moment  were  exposed  to  be  scalped. 

None  of  our  histories  mention  the  name  of  Hannah  Handy,  whose 
entreaties  rescued  not  only  her  own  children  but  seven  of  her  neighbor's 
children  from  going  into  captivity,  after  they  had  been  already  taken 
over  White  River,  and  who  dared  to  cross  that  river  on  the  back  of 
an  Indian,  that  she  might  bring  back  her  jewels.  Yet  was  she  a  heroine 
before  finding  a  parallel  for  whom  we  shall  search  long. 

But  as  annecdotes  of  Allen  were  eagerly  coveted  in  his  life  time  by 
distinguished  Frenchmen,  as  we  are  learning  that  our  curled  maple  and 
walnut  may  compare  with  mahogany,  and  that  our  marbles  may  vie 
with  those  of  Carrara,  which  some  have  crossed  an  ocean  to  visit,  so 
let  us  believe  that  heroes  and  heroines  may  not  always  be  without 
honor  in  their  own  country,  and  in  ours.  Such  seem  specimens  of  the 
cardinal  deficiencies  in  our  histories  as  to  our  part  in  our  histories  of  the 
Revolution,  including  our  conflicts  and  our  negociations  with  the 
British,  as  to  minute  details,  and  as  to  our  heroes  and  heroines. 


23 

These  deficiencies,  and  countless  others  in  relation  to  topics  on  which 
I  have  no  time  to  touch,  have  not  only  been  clearly  detected  by  our 
President,  but  his  labors  have  accumulated  materials  for  suppljTng  very 
many  of  them.  He  has  gathered  together  fragments  from  lake  to  river, 
from  Massachusetts  to  Canada, — he  has  spent  three  months  together 
in  the  collections  of  sister  states,  or  of  the  general  government ;  he  has 
secured  conespondents  in  Canada,  and  in  the  person  of  his  son,  he  has 
broken  through  the  Chinese  wall  of  English  exclusiveness, — he  has 
found  laws  and  journals  of  the  Legislature  that  have  been  given  up  for 
lost — he  has  doubled  Thompson's  list  of  Vermont  books  before  its 
admission  to  the  Union, — he  has  saved  letters  by  thousands  that  were 
ready  to  perish,  and  that  cast  each  its  ray  on  the  dark  past.  He  has 
recently  added  a  third  to  the  ponderous  tomes  obtained  of  him  by  the 
State  two  years  ago, — he  has  collected  autographs,  not  to  see  which 
with  more  pleasure  than  Napoleon's  would  cast  onimous  conjecture  on 
your  patriotism,  written  in  such  a  hand  as  was  to  be  expected  from 
pioneers,  but  who  would  look  on  letters  of  gold  with  half  the  pleasure  ? 

Are  all  desiderata  then  supplied  by  the  collections  of  our  President  ? 
By  no  means.  Properly  speaking  he  has  had  to  do  with  only  one 
department — military  operations — and  that  during  the  Revolution. 
We  ought  to  be  thankful  that  he  has  magnified  his  office,  yet  not  for- 
getful that  he  has  exhausted  none  of  the  mines  of  investigation.  A 
banel  full  of  papers  left  by  the  most  interesting  military  character  in  our 
annals  lies  headed  up  and  unexamined  to  this  day. 

The  collections  of  other  societies  and  public  offices,  whether  state, 
national  or  foreign,  remain  to  be  examined  or  re-examined.  The 
papers  of  every  man  mentioned  in  our  history  are  to  be  sought  for,  and 
in  this  search  the  name  of  every  such  man  may  prove  a  guide  useful  as 
a  clue  in  a  labyrinth.  We  must  seek  for  sermons,  histories,  and 
biographies,  hoards  of  newspapers,  or  those  thrown  away  like  autumnd 
leaves,  journals  in  manuscript,  letters  sent  out  of  the  State  to  those  from 
whom  the  settlers  came  forth.  A  rich  mine  of  these  is  doubtless  still 
unopened,  for,  among  hundreds  I  have  examined,  I  have  discovered 
only  two  addressed  to  women,  and  none — no  not  one — written  by  a 
woman.  But  were  not  woman  in  those  days  ready  writers  even  as 
now  ?  Proverbially  the  best  letter-writers  in  all  other  countries,  were 
they  found  wanting  here?    Did  not  their  letters  paint  the  lights  and 


24 

shades  of  life  in  this  new  State,  as  they  have  since  portrayed  western 
clearings,  as  those  of  busy  men,  less  keen-eyed  for  the  picturesque  and 
trivial  could  not,  or  did  not  ? 

Other  sources  of  historical  facts  will  also  be  opened  to  us  by  lucky 
accidents,  too  various  to  be  described  or  too  strange  to  be  predicted. 
The  gems  of  sister  societies  were  sometimes  found  where  least  looked 
for.  The  original  of  the  world-famed  (  Elnglish  )  Magna  Charta  was 
found  in  the  hands  of  a  tailor,  who  was  just  ready  to  cut  it  up  for 
patterns.  One  of  the  most  ancient  and  valuable  maps  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, when  it  extended  to  the  lake,  was  discovered  in  a  storehouse 
where  a  pedler  had  left  it  when  he  removed  his  rags,  either  through 
accident,  or  judging  it  not  worth  taking  away. 

What  has  been  will  be. 

If  such  a  list  of  questions  as  that  prepared  by  the  Massachusetts 
society  were  circulated  throughout  Vermont,  township  by  township, 
beyond  a  doubt  many  early  laws  and  journals  of  the  Legislature,  long 
ago  given  up  as  irrecoverably  lost,  as  well  as  much  equally  valuable 
and  more  curious  information  concerning  Town  Committees  and  Com- 
mittees of  Safety,  those  cradles  of  our  independance,  lacking  links  of 
every  sort  in  the  chains  of  our  annals,  might  be  rescued  from  oblivion. 

No  doubt  the  drag-net  of  our  research  will  gather  of  every  kind. 
Criticism  must  therefore  have  its  perfect  work,  in  separating  the  precious 
from  the  vile.  The  mass  of  materials  must  also  be  classified  according 
to  their  nature,  the  time  to  which  they  relate,  the  place  where  they 
were  found,  or  the  purposes  for  which  they  may  be  employed. 

Mamy  explanatory  notes  must  be  appended  to  the  collections  made 
by  our  President,  or  what  is  a  plain  path  to  him  will  appear  to  those 
who  shall  come  after,  "  a  mighty  maze  euid  all  without  a  plan." 

The  fruits  of  our  historical  harvests  and  gleanings  ought  also  to  be 
garnered  up  in  a  chief  place  of  concourse,  instead  of  the  comer  where 
they  are  now  secluded, — even  as  the  treasures  of  other  states  are 
honored  with  archives  in  Boston,  Hartford,  Concord,  New  York  and 
Washington. 

How  beautiful  thus  to  have  a  section  of  the  past  brought  safe  into 
the  present  and  set  down  before  your  eyes ! 

Arrangements  are  making  for  publishing  the  earliest  annals  of  our 
fathers.    I  trust  such  a  publication  will  soon  take  away  our  reproach  of 


25 

being  the  only  State  which  has  had  a  Society  for  a  series  of  years  and 
yet  published  nothing,  as  if  our  investigations  were  labor  lost,  or  were 
to  be  hidden  in  the  chaos  of  a  Museum, 

The  "  Historical  readings,"  published  in  the  State  Banner,  were  well 
received.  Let  us  have  more  of  them,  a  hundred  fold.  Let  our  printers 
whose  types  preserve  knowledge,  bring  forth  things  old  as  well  as  new. 

What  is  of  more  interest  than  a  town  history — to  each  man  that  of 
his  own  town  ?  No  where  in  Europe  did  I  seek  without  finding  one. 
How  long  shall  we  desire  such  histories  in  vain  ?  What  true  patriot 
loves  not  his  own  village  ? 

Who  can  doubt  the  capacity  of  our  primitive  period  to  furnish  an 
anthology  of  incidents  suited  for  a  reading  book  in  common  schools ! 
Such  a  book  would  have  a  greater  charm  for  children  than  things  far 
off  and  long  ago.  It  might  develop  a  spirit  of  research  which  must 
otherwise  perish  in  embryo.  Many  an  unique  document  which  now 
appears  to  them  as  worthless  as  the  jewel  seemed  to  the  barn-yard 
fowl,  it  might  lead  them  to  appreciate  so  that  they  would  say,  destroy 
it  not,  for  a  blessing  is  it. 

The  only  incident  relating  to  our  history,  I  remember  in  my  school 
books,  is  Howe's  captivity,  and  that  was  in  a  book  long  since  anti- 
quated. Is  there  nothing,  then,  in  our  history  such  that  we  may  fitly  tell 
in  the  ears  of  our  sons,  and  teach  it  diligently  to  our  sons'  sons ! 

As  a  means  of  securing  the  ends  now  suggested  we  may  rejoice 
that  we  have  a  State  Society,  albeit  as  some  think,  it  has  but  a  name 
to  live.  Should  we  dispise  its  low  estate,  knowing  that  all  begginnings 
are  small  ?  Will  it  not  be  a  rallying  point,  nay  a  magnet  attracting  to 
itself  and  binding  in  union  all  congenial  spirits  however  scattered 
abroad  ?  Is  it  not  suited  to  be  their  organ  of  communication  with  those 
like  minded  elsewhere  ?  Will  it  not  increase  their  zeal,  by  kindling 
mutual  emulation  and  by  so  dividing  labors  that  each  man  shall  have 
an  office  in  keeping  with  his  taste  and  opportunities.  What  better 
expedient  can  be  devised  to  keep  historical  inquiries  before  the  people, 
as  well  as  to  secure  the  co-operation  and  contributions  of  their  thousand 
hands  ? 

Is  it  not  a  nucleus,  a  reservoir  into  which  rivulets  without  number, 
invaluable  for  its  purposes  though  valueless  as  to  all  others,  will  naturally 
flow  ? 


26 

Is  it  not  a  company  for  mutual  insurance — not  against  fire — but 
against  a  loss  which  can  never,  by  any  possibility,  be  repaired  ? 

An  association,  of  such  a  nature  and  of  such  aims,  should  commend 
itself  to  us  all. 

Statesmen !  Among  your  motives  to  scorn  delights  and  live  laborious 
days  is  the  hope  to  leave  a  name  that  men  shall  not  willingly  let  die — 
can  you  be  indifferent  to  what  concerns  the  memory  of  your  predeces- 
sors ?    Do  to  them  as  ye  would  that  posterity  should  do  to  you. 

Politicians !  Will  you  not  welcome  our  Society,  as  a  little  sanctuary 
where  no  war-whoop  of  party  can  be  heard, — where  the  interests  of 
all  parties  are  one.  If  you  look  to  dollars  and  cents,  are  researches  to 
be  sneered  at,  which  by  the  papers  of  a  single  family  have  obtained 
nine  pensions,  and  which  may  yet  substantiate  our  claim  to  millions 
from  the  national  treasury  ? 

Scholars !  Can  you  remember  that  Massachusetts  has  published 
scores  of  volumes  to  illustrate  her  history, — that  Connecticut,  New- 
Hampshire,  New  York,  and  even  Georgia  have  followed  in  her 
footsteps,  and  blush  not  that  we  are  behind  them  all  ? 

Ye  that  have  spoken  of  plants  even  unto  the  hyssop  that  springeth 
out  of  the  wall — that  have  chronicled  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth — can  you  pass  by  on  the  other  side  any 
memorial  of  the  leaves  in  our  history,  as  if  tithing  cummin  were  the 
weightiest  of  matters  ? 

Rich  men !  The  British  Museum  has  last  year  appropriated  more 
than  $20,000  to  purchase  books  relating  to  America.  Many  of  the 
rarest  works  on  our  local  annals  are  led  into  captivity  to  London — 
materials,  says  one,  for  future  Alison's  to  forge  lies  from.  Will  you 
only  tighten  your  purse  strings  while  men  in  deep  poverty  are  strugling 
to  secure  for  ourselves  the  documents  which  may  be  indispensible  for 
refuting  the  half-truths,  equivalent  to  whole  falsehoods,  which  will  be 
propounded,  regarding  our  annals,  by  the  party,  or  prejudiced  writers 
of  England  ? 

Let  us  leave  our  history  to  be  written  by  foreigners  and  it  will  be 
the  play  of  Hamlet  with  the  part  of  Hamlet  omitted.  The  New  York 
account  of  the  taking  of  Ticonderoga  is  that  "it  was  surprised  by  a 
detachment  of  provincials  from  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  Bay, " 
as  if  there  had  no  Vermonter  raised  a  finger.  The  truth  is,  as  we 


27 

have  seen,  that  the  first  measures  for  that  capture  originated  in  Vermont, 
and  that  all  but  one  sixth  of  those  engaged  in  it  were  Vermonters. 

Our  ancestors  made  themselves  of  no  reputation  for  you  who  had 
done  nothing  for  them.  No  debt  can  be  more  binding  on  you  than  to 
see  to  it  that  justice  is  done  their  memory. 

Is  there  no  hope  of  any  further  aid  from  the  State  ?  Shall  not  this 
State,  like  so  many  others,  perfect  its  archives,  or  shall  the  only  State 
that  redeemed  its  revolutionary  paper  money  at  par  neglect  to  finish 
securing  even  its  own  laws  and  journals,  and  the  records  of  its  courts  ? 

It  is  not  fitting  for  the  State's  money  to  be  laid  out  to  help  a  man 
travel  in  England ;  but  it  is  a  shame  to  us  that  we  have  not  sooner 
secured  the  services  of  a  gentleman  who  had  gained  access  to  the 
correspondence  during  the  most  critical  period  of  our  history, — docu- 
ments which  others  had  in  vain  begged  leave  to  examine — and  who 
would  have  copied  it  cheaper  and  better  than  any  other  man.  We 
have  refused  him  hundreds  though  we  might  thus  have  procured  a 
better  reputation  than  we  can  now  make  of  an  aspersion  which  has 
been  cast  on  the  fame  of  our  fathers.  England  is  now  lavishing 
thousands  upon  the  same  man  for  his  assistance  in  obtaining  documents 
in  which  she  can  feel  comparatively  but  little  interest. 

Even  Georgia  has  procured  the  copying  of  twenty  folios  regarding 
her  history  in  British  public  offices. 

The  genius  of  our  history  says  to  us,  all  and  each,  that  thou  doest 
do  quickly,  like  the  sybil  to  the  ancient  king,  she  year  by  year  brings 
with  her  fewer  and  fewer  antique  records,  but  unlike  the  sybil  demands 
for  them  an  even  increasing  price. 

I  trust  our  Geological  scrutiny  will  meet  with  no  interruption  or 
delay,  but  were  we  to  leave  that  scrutiny  half  unfinished,  another 
generation  may  renew  it,  and  suffer  no  evil  from  our  neglect.  Geological 
records  are  always  with  us,  everlasting  as  the  hills, — they  are  graven 
on  the  rock  forever,  we  may  read  them  when  we  will. 

The  records  of  our  fathers  have  in  part  perished  with  them, — some 
of  them  live  in  the  memories  of  patriarchs  who  still  stand  among  us 
with  eyes  undimned  and  natural  force  not  abated,  as  if  on  purpose 
that  such  as  hold  the  pen  of  the  ready  writer  may  still  embalm  their 
sayings.  For  this  end  let  each  of  us  build  over  against  his  own  house 
and  rely  on  himself  as  though  he  were  the  only  laborer.  Let  us  redeem 


28 

the  time,  since  if  our  old  men  pass  away  unquestioned,  no  buried 
Pompeii  can  be  raised  from  the  grave  to  enlighten  our  wilful  ignorance. 
How  we  lack  what  we  have  lost  irretrievably !  Many  of  you  have 
stood  in  the  Massachusetts  Senate  Chamber  and  seen  suspended  over 
the  entrance,  a  gun,  drum,  sword  and  cap,  trophies,  not  of  Lexington, 
Concord,  or  Bunker  Hill,  but  of  Bennington.  What  would  we  not 
give  to  regain  the  similaur  relic, — "those  bruised  arms  hung  up  for 
monuments, "  which  we  throw  away  as  nothing  worth.  It  is  too  late. 
But  let  us  be  up  and  doing,  each  in  his  own  order.  Every  fact 
hitherto  undetected,  we  can  glean  and  gamer  up  by  means  of  the  art 
preservative  of  all  arts,  may  be  a  monument  more  lasting  than  those 
trophies  in  Boston,  or  than  any  corruptible  things,  and  what  is  more, 
vocal  with  speech  that  may  be  heard  through  all  space  and  through  all 
time. 


HENRY  STEVENS 

First  President  of  the  Vermont  Historical  Society 


ACT  OF  INCORPORATION  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 

It  is  hereby  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of 
Vermont  as  follows : 

1  St.  Henry  Stevens,  of  Barnet,  in  the  County  of  Caledonia,  and 
Oramel  H.  Smith,  Daniel  P.  Thompson,  and  George  B.  Mansur,  of 
Montpelier,  in  the  County  of  Washington, — and  such  other  persons  as 
have  associated,  and  may  hereafter  associate,  themselves  w^ith  them,  for 
the  purpose  of  collecting  and  preserving  materials  for  the  civil  and 
natural  history  of  the  State  of  Vermont, — are  hereby  made  a  body 
corporate  and  politic,  by  the  name  of  The  Vermont  Historical  and 
Antiquarian  Society ;  and,  by  that  name,  they,  and  their  successors, 
may  sue  and  be  sued,  and  shall  be  capable  in  law  to  take  and  hold  in 
fee  simple,  or  otherwise,  lands,  and  tenements,  and  rents  and  heredita- 
ments, not  exceeding,  in  the  whole,  the  yearly  value  of  $2000.00, 
exclusive  of  the  building  or  buildings,  which  may  be  actually  occupied 
for  the  purposes  of  the  said  Corporation  ;  and  they  shall  also  be  capa- 
ble, in  law,  to  take,  receive  and  hold,  personal  estate  to  an  amount,  the 
yearly  value  of  which  shall  not  exceed  the  sum  of  $2000.00,  exclu- 
sive of  the  Books,  Papers,  Memorials,  and  other  articles,  composing  the 
Library  and  Cabinet  of  the  said  Corporation ;  and  shall  also  have 
power  to  sell,  demise,  exchange,  or  otherwise  dispose  of,  all,  or  part,  of 
their  lands,  tenements,  hereditaments,  and  other  property,  for  the  benefit 
of  said  Corporation ;  and  shall  also  have  a  Common  Seal,  which  they 
may  alter  at  their  pleasure ;  and  shall  also  have  the  power  to  make  By- 
Laws,  with  suitable  penalties,  not  repugnant  to  the  Laws  of  this  State. 

2d.  The  said  Corporation  shall  have  power,  from  time  to  time,  as 
they  may  think  fit,  to  elect  a  President,  and  such  other  officers  as  they 
shall  judge  necessary ;  and  at  their  first  meeting,  they  shall  agree  upon 
the  manner  of  calling  future  meetings,  and  proceed  to  execute  all,  or 
any,  of  the  powers  vested  in  them  by  this  act. 

3d.  The  Library  and  Cabinet  of  the  said  Corporation  shall  be  kept 
in  the  town  of  Barnet,  in  the  County  of  Caledonia. 

4th.  The  said  Henry  Stevens  is  authorized  to  notify  the  first  meeting 
of  the  said  Corporation,  by  an  advertisement  thereof,  under  his  hand,  for 
three  weeks  before  such  meeting,  in  any  newspaper  printed  in  this  State. 

Approved  Nov.  5,  1838. 


30 

FIRST  MEETING  OF  THE 

Vermont  Historical  and  Antiquarian  Society, 

OCTOBER,  1840. 

Pursuant  to  an  Act  of  the  Legislature  of  Vermont,  incorporating  The 
Vermont  Historical  and  Antiquarian  Society,  and  empowering 
Henry  Stevens  to  call  the  first  meeting  of  said  Society,  the  said  Stevens 
having  given  the  notice  by  said  Act  required,  the  several  persons,  in 
said  Act  incorporated,  met  at  Montpelier  on  the  third  Thursday  of 
October,  A.  D.  1 840,  and  elected — 

HENRY  STEVENS,  of  Bamet,  President. 

The  same,  "  Librarian. 

D.  P.  Thompson,  )  o        »    • 

GD  ^/I  f  secretaries, 

eo.  B.  Mansur,  j 

As  officers  of  the  said  Society  for  the  year  ensuing;  and  Silas  H. 
Jennison,  E.  A.  Stansbury,  I.  F.  Redfield,  D.  M.  Camp,  E^  P.  Walton, 
Daniel  Baldwdn,  G.  W.  Benedict,  Solo.  Stodard,  and  Norman 
Williams,  associate  members ;  and  adopted  the  following 

CONSTITUTION  AND  BY-LAWS. 

Article  1 .  TTiere  shall  be  a  President  and  two  Vice  Presidents.  It 
shall  be  the  duty  of  the  President,  and,  in  his  absence,  one  of  the  Vice 
Presidents,  to  preside  in  the  meetings,  and  to  regulate  the  debates  of 
the  Society  and  Council ;  to  call  meetings  of  the  Council,  and  extra- 
ordinary meetings  of  the  Society,  by  advice  of  Council.  The  President, 
or  presiding  officer,  shall  vote  in  Council,  and  also  have  a  casting  vote. 
The  Vice  Presidents  shall,  ex-officio,  be  members  of  the  Council. 

Art.  2.  There  shall  be  seven  Counsellors,  exclusive  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  Vice  Presidents :  any  four  of  the  whole  number  shall  con- 
stitute a  quorum.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Counsellors  to  direct  the 
Corresponding  Secretaries  in  the  performance  of  their  duty ;  to  present 
to  the  Society,  for  their  acceptance,  such  regulations  and  by-laws  as, 
from  time  to  time,  shall  be  thought  expedient;  to  receive  donations, 
and,  with  the  President,  to  purchase,  sell  or  lease,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Society,  real  or  personal  estate ;  to  draw  orders  on  the  Treasury  for 


31 

necessary  monies,  and,  in  general,  to  manage  the  prudential  concerns  of 
the  Society.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Council  to  inquire  concerning 
the  characters  of  persons,  living  out  of  this  State,  proper  to  be  elected 
Honorary  Members. 

Art.  3.  There  shall  be  one  Recording  Secretary,  and  two  Cor- 
responding Secretaries.  The  Recording  Secretary  shall  be  the  keeper 
of  the  Seal  of  the  Society.  It  shall  be  his  duty  to  attend  all  meetings 
of  the  Society  and  Council,  and  to  make  and  keep  records  of  all  their 
proceedings ;  and  shall  keep  on  file  all  literary  papers  belonging  to  the 
Society,  under  direction  of  the  Council, 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Corresponding  Secretaries  to  receive  and 
read  all  communications  made  to  the  Society,  and  to  manage,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Council,  all  the  correspondence  of  the  Society. 

Art.  4.  There  shall  be  a  Treasurer  who  shall  give  such  security  as 
the  President  and  Council  shall  require  for  the  faithful  performance  of 
his  trust.  It  shall  be  his  duty  to  receive  and  keep  all  monies  and 
evidence  of  property  belonging  to  the  Society ;  to  pay  out  to  the  order 
of  the  President  and  Council ;  to  keep  a  record  of  his  receipts  and 
payments  ;  exhibit  the  same  to,  and  settle  with,  a  committee  which  shall 
be  annually  appointed  for  this  purpose  ;  and  he  shall  put  the  money  of 
said  Society  to  interest  under  the  direction  of  the  President  and 
Council. 

Art.  5.  There  shall  be  a  Librarian  and  Cabinet  Keeper,  who  shall 
give  bonds  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  President  and  Council  for  the 
faithful  performance  of  his  trust.  He  shall  receive  and  have  in  his 
custody  all  Books,  Papers,  Productions  of  Nature,  and  Works  of  Art — 
the  property  of  the  Society.  These  he  shall  arrange  in  classes,  and 
register  in  a  book  with  a  proper  description  of  each  article,  with  the 
donor's  name,  when  the  same  shall  be  a  present.  No  article  shall  ever, 
on  any  occasion,  be  loaned  or  taken  from  the  Museum ;  nor  shall  any 
book  or  other  article  be  borrowed  from  the  Library,  except  by  a  vote 
of  the  Council,  and  then  the  loan  of  such  article  shall  be  recorded,  and 
a  receipt  given  therefor  by  the  borrower,  engaging  to  return  the  same 
in  four  weeks,  or  pay  a  forfeiture,  such  as  by  a  vote  of  the  Council  shall 
be  affixed. 

Art.  6.  The  stated  meetings  of  the  Society  shall  be — one  in  Barnet, 
on  the  I  7th  day  of  January,  and,  when  the  same  shall  fall  on  Sunday, 


32 

then  the  Tuesday  following ;  one  in  Montpelier  on  the  third  Thursday 
in  October,  at  such  hours  and  places  as  shall  be  notified  by  the 
Secretary.  At  the  annual  meeting  in  Montpelier,  in  October,  there 
shall  be  chosen,  by  ballot,  all  the  officers  of  the  Society  to  serve  during 
the  following  year,  and  until  others  are  chosen.  At  this  meeting  a 
public  oration  shall  be  delivered  by  some  person  to  be  appointed  by 
the  Council. 

Art.  7.  All  nominations  for  members  shall  hereafter  be  submitted  to 
a  committee  of  three  for  their  approbation ;  and,  if  approved  by  said 
committee,  the  names  of  the  candidates,  with  the  names  of  the  mem- 
bers who  proposed  said  candidates,  shall  be  entered  in  the  book  of 
nominations,  and  the  candidates  may  be  balloted  for  at  the  next 
meeting  of  the  Society. 

Art.  8.  Each  member  shall  annually  pay  into  the  hands  of  the 
Treasurer  at  the  meeting,  in  October,  $2,00  towards  a  fund.  And 
every  person  who  shall  neglect  to  pay  said  annual  tax,  and  shall  suffer 
him  or  herself  to  be  in  arrear  for  three  annual  taxes,  after  having  been 
called  on  by  the  Treasurer  in  person,  or  by  written  order,  shall  be 
considered  as  having  abdicated  his  interest  in  the  Society,  and  no 
longer  a  member. 

Art.  9.  All  meetings,  standing  or  special,  shall  be  notified  by  the 
Recording  Secretary,  under  direction  of  the  President  and  Council,  in 
one  newspaper,  published  in  Montpelier,  fourteen  days  previous  to  the 
day  of  the  meeting,  in  which  notification  the  hour  and  place  of  the 
meeting  shall  be  designated. 

Art.  10.  In  case  of  the  death,  resignation,  or  removal  out  of  the 
State,  of  either  of  the  Secretaries,  or  the  Treasurer,  or  Librarian,  the 
Council  shall  take  charge  of  the  official  books,  papers  and  effects 
belonging  to  the  vacated  office,  giving  receipts  for  the  same,  which 
books  they  may  deliver  to  some  person  whom  they  may  appoint  to  fill 
the  office  until  the  next  meeting  of  the  Society,  when  there  shall  be  a 
choice. 

Art.  I  I .  This  Constitution  shall  not  be  altered,  or  amended,  except 
at  the  stated  meeting  in  October,  and  then  only  by  the  vote  of  three- 
fourths  of  the  members  present. 


33 

BY-LAWS. 

1  St.  The  ballots  for  the  election  of  officers,  and  the  admission  of 
members,  shall  be  collected  by  a  committee  chosen  by  nomination,  who 
shall  assort  and  count  the  votes  and  make  report  to  the  presiding 
officer ;  and  he  shall  declare  the  result  to  the  Society. 

2d.  Every  member,  who  shall  advance  $20  to  the  funds  shall  be 
excused  paying  the  annual  tax  of  $2. 

3d.  Every  new  member  shall  be  notified  of  his  election  by  a 
printed  letter  signed  by  the  Recording  Secretary. 

4th.  The  Secretary  shall  record,  in  a  book  for  this  purpose,  the 
names  of  the  members,  and  the  times  of  their  admission. 

5  th.  All  books  and  other  articles,  belonging  to  the  Society,  shall 
be  appraised,  and  the  price  of  each  article  shall  be  mentioned  in  the 
catalogue. 

6th.  A  correct  catalogue  of  the  books,  and  other  articles,  shall  be 
made  out  by  the  Librarian  and  Cabinet  Keeper,  or  by  a  Committee 
chosen  by  the  Society  for  this  purpose,  which  copy  shall  be  kept  by 
the  President  for  the  time  being ;  and,  as  additions  are  made  to  the 
Library  and  Museum,  they  shall  be  entered  on  the  Catalogue  and  copy 
thereof. 

7th.  Every  deed,  to  which  the  Common  Seal  of  the  Society  is 
affixed,  shall  be  passed  and  sealed  in  Council,  signed  by  the  President, 
and  attested  by  the  Secretary. 

8th.  There  shall  be  a  temporary  place  of  deposit  in  Montpelier, 
and  in  such  other  places  as  the  Council  shall  hereafter  direct,  for  the 
convenience  of  those  who  may  be  disposed  to  present  to  the  Society 
any  article  for  its  Library  and  Museum.  Every  article  so  deposited, 
shall,  as  soon  after  as  circumstances  will  permit,  be  forwarded  to  the 
Library  and  Museum  in  Barnet. 

SEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING. 

On  the  third  Thursday  of  October,  A.  D.  1846,  the  Vermont 
Historical  and  Antiquarian  Society,  agreeably  to  previous  notice,  held 
their  seventh  annual  meeting  at  the  Court  House,  in  Montpelier ;  when 
the  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  the  President,  and  the  following 


34 

Officers  of  the  Society  were  duly  elected  for  the  year  ensuing,  viz.: 

HENRY  STEVENS,  President. 

I.  F.  Redfield,  1  w.       , 
S.B.  Colby,      I  Vice  do. 

D.  P.  THOMPSON,  Recording  Secretary. 
HENRY  STEVENS,  Ubrarian  and  Cabinet  Keeper. 
D.  BALDWIN,  Treasurer. 
.  E.  P.  WALTON,    \ 
S.  H.  JENNISON.  / 

I.  F.  REDFIELD,     >  Counsellors. 

D.  M.  CAMP,         ( 

D.  BALDWIN,       j 
After  which  the  Society  adjourned  to  meet  at  the  Brick  Church,  Oct. 
1 6,  to  hezur  aa  Address  from  Rev.  J.  D.  Butler, 

D.  P.  THOMPSON,  Secretary. 

October  16,  1846. 
Society  met,  and,  the  Legislature  adjourning  for  the  purpose,  the 
members  thereof  assembled  at  the  Brick  Church,  at  3  o'clock,  P.  M., 
when,  the  President  and  Secretary  in  the  chair,  Rev.  J.  D.  Butler 
delivered  an  interesting  address,  illustrating  the  importance  of  preserving 
the  fragmentary  and  unpublished  history  of  Vermont ;  at  the  close  of 
which  Rev.  J.  Gridley  offered  a  resolution  of  thanks  to  Mr.  Butler  for 
his  address — requesting  a  copy  for  the  press — which  was  adopted ; 
and  the  meeting  adjourned. 

The  following  declaration  and  accompanying  papers  were  found  by 
Mr.  Stevens,  at  Washington  among  a  mass  of  rubbish  and  were  first 
published  in  the  Burlington  Free  Press,  the  editor  of  which  paper  very 
justly  remarks  that  the  State  is  under  great  obligation  to  Mr.  Stevens 
for  his  services  in  hunting  up  and  arranging  official  papers  and  other 
testimony  touching  the  origin,  progress,  and  final  consummation  of  the 
struggle,  which  resulted  in  giving  to  the  American  Switzerland  the 
proud  individuality  of  which  we  so  justly  boast.  We  hope  to  see  the 
State  do  justice  to  itself,  and  to  Mr.  Stevens,  by  purchasing  these 
papers,  and  putting  them  in  a  shape  to  make  them  available  to  the 
community  at  large.  When  this  is  done,  the  world  will  be  satisfied  that 
the  early  settlers  of  Vermont  were  men  of  no  common  mould.  For  a 
mere  handful  of  men  to  resist  the  combined  efforts  of  New  York  on 


35 

the  one  side,  and  New  Hampshire  on  the  other — to  be  repulsed,  if  not 
rejected  by  the  home  government,  and  menaced  by  a  foreign  foe, 
involved  the  exercise  of  no  common  sagacity,  and  an  amount  of  nerve 
and  energy,  with  which  we  are  not  familiar.  But  so  it  was.  While 
maintaining  an  open  war  with  the  neighboring  states,  they  protected 
the  whole  line  of  our  frontier,  by  keeping  on  terms  with  the  common 
enemy,  while  at  the  same  time  they  rendered  more  efficient  aid  to  the 
government  which  discarded  them  than  either  of  the  States  alluded 
to.  The  official  correspondence  with  Washington — some  of  which  is 
among  these  interesting  papers — goes  to  demonstrate  this,  beyond  a 
doubt. 

It  is  due  the  honor  of  the  State  that  something  be  done  to  sustain 
Mr.  Stevens  in  his  untiring  efforts  to  bring  to  light  the  records  of  a  State 
whose  early  history  is  more  remarkable  than  that  of  any  other  State  of 
the  Union.  C.  G.  E. 

Vermont  Declaration  of  Independence. 

"  In  Convention  of  the  Representatives  from  the  several  counties  and 
towns  of  the  New  Hampshire  grants,  holden  at  Westminster,  January 
15,  1  777,  by  adjournment. 

Whereas,  the  Honorable  the  Continental  Congress  did,  on  the  4th 
day  of  July  last,  declare  the  United  Colonies  in  America  to  be  free  and 
independent  of  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  ;  which  declaration  we  most 
cordially  acquiess  in.  And  whereas  by  the  said  declaration,  the  arbi- 
trary acts  of  the  crown  are  null  and  void,  in  America.  Consequently, 
the  jurisdiction  by  said  crown  granted  to  New  York  government  over 
the  people  of  the  New  Hampshire  grants  is  totally  dissolved. 

IVe  therefore,  the  inhabitants,  on  said  tract  of  land,  are  at  present 
without  law  or  government,  and  may  be  truly  said  to  be  in  a  state  of 
nature ;  consequently  a  right  remains  to  the  people  on  said  Grants,  to 
form  a  Government  best  suited  to  secure  their  property  well  being  and 
happiness.  We  the  delegates  from  the  several  counties  and  towns  on 
said  tract  of  land,  bounded  as  follows :  South  on  the  north  line  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  ;  East,  on  Connecticut  River ;  North  on  Canada 
line ;  West  as  far  as  the  New  Hampshire  Grants  extends :  After 
several  adjournments  for  the  purpose  of  forming  ourselves  into  a  distinct 


36 

separate  State,  being  assembled  at  Westminster,  do  make  and  publish 
the  foUowmg  Decimation,  viz : 

"  That  we  will  at  all  times  hereafter,  consider  ourselves  as  a  free  and 
independent  State,  capable  of  regulating  our  internal  police,  in  all  and 
every  respect  whatsoever.  And  that  the  people  of  said  Grants  have  the 
sole  and  exclusive,  and  inherent  right  of  ruling  and  governing  them- 
selves, in  such  manner  and  form  as  in  their  own  wisdom  shall  think 
proper,  not  inconsistent  or  repugnant  to  any  resolve  of  the  Honorable 
Continental  Congress. 

Furthermore,  we  declare  by  all  the  ties  which  are  held  sacred  among 
men,  that  we  will  firmly  stand  by  and  support  one  another  in  this  our 
declaration  of  a  State,  and  endeavoring  as  much  as  in  us  lies  to  sup- 
press unlawful  routs  and  disturbances  whatever.  Also  we  will  endeavor 
to  secure  to  every  individual  his  life,  peace  and  property,  against  all 
unlawful  invaders  of  the  same. 

Lastly,  we  hereby  declare,  that  we  are  at  all  times  ready,  in  con- 
junction with  our  brethren  in  the  United  States  of  America,  to  do  our 
full  proportion  in  maintainmg  and  supporting  the  just  war,  against  the 
tyrannical  invasions  of  the  ministerial  fleets  and  armies,  as  well  as  any 
other  foreign  enemies,  sent  with  express  purpose  to  murder  our  fellow 
brethren,  and  with  fire  and  sword  to  ravage  our  defenceless  country. 

The  said  State  hereafter  to  be  called  by  the  name  of  New 
Connecticut." 

Extracts  from  the  minutes. 

IRA  ALLEN,  Clerk. 


In  Convention  of  the  Representatives  from  the  several  counties  and 
towns  in  the  New  Hampshire  Grants  holden  at  Westminster,  1  5  th 
January  1  777,  by  adjournment.  Voted  unanimously, 

That  it  is  the  ardent  wish  of  this  Convention  that  each  town  in  the 
District  would  send  a  Delegate  or  Delegates,  to  the  next  sitting  of  this 
Convention,  those  towns  that  have  not  chose  any  Delegates  to  choose 
and  send.  This  Convention  is  adjourned  to  the  first  day  of  June  next, 
to  be  held  at  the  Meeting  House  in  Windsor,  at  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning. 

Extracts  from  the  minutes. 

IRA  ALLEN,  Clerk. 


37 

*#*  Non-residents  that  have  a  desire  to  attend  the  above  Conven- 
tion, are  hereby  notified  of  the  same,  said  Convention  was  formed  to 
govern  the  Internal  Police  of  said  District,  and  if  thought  proper,  to 
form  said  District  into  a  State. 


;:} 


STATE  OF  VERMONT, 
In  General  Convention,  Windsor,  June  4,  1  777. 

Whereas,  this  Convention,  did  at  their  session  in  Westminster,  the 
15th  day  of  January  last,  among  other  things,  declare  the  district  of 
land  commonly  called  and  known  by  the  name  of  the  New  Hampshire 
Grants,  to  "  be  a  free  and  independent  State,  capable  of  regulating 
their  own  internal  police  in  all  and  every  respect  whatsoever,  and 
that  it  should  be  known  thereafter  by  the  name  of  New  Connecticut. " 

And  whereas,  by  mere  accident,  or  through  mistake,  the  said 
declaration  alone,  was  published  in  the  Connecticut  Courant,  No.  634, 
dated  March  the  17th,  1777,  without  eissigning  the  reasons  which 
impelled  the  inhabitants  to  such  separation. 

And  whereas,  this  Convention  have  been  informed  that  a  district 
of  land  Ijang  on  the  Susquehanah  River,  has  been  heretofore  and  is 
now  known  by  the  name  of  New  Connecticut,  which  was  unknown 
to  them  until  some  time  since  the  declaration  at  Westminster  aforesaid  ; 
and  that  it  would  be  inconvenient  in  many  respects  for  two  separate 
districts  on  this  continent  to  bear  the  same  name ; 

Resoloed,  therefore,  unanimously,  that  the  said  district  described  in 
the  preamble  to  the  declaration  at  Westminster,  aforesaid,  shall  ever 
hereafter  be  called  and  known  by  the  name  of  Vermont. 

And  whereas,  the  whole  body  of  members  which  compose  this 
Convention,  consisting  of  the  following  persons,  viz  :  Captain  Josiah 
Bowker,  President;  Nathan  Clarke,  Esq.,  Mr.  Simeon  Hatheway, 
Mr.  John  Bumam,  jun.,  Jonas  Fay,  Secretary  ;  Major  Jeremiah  Clark, 
Mr.  Abel  Olia,  Captain  Ebenezer  Willoughby,  Mr.  Abel  Benedict, 
Mr.  Joseph  Bradley,  Mr.  Ely  Bronson,  Mr.  Martin  Powell,  Mr. 
Thomas  Bull,  Mr.  Cephas  Kent,  Mr.  Moses  Robinson  2nd.,  Dr. 
Gains    Smith,  Captain    William  Fitch,  Captain  Jonathan  Willard, 


38 

Mr.  Caleb  Smith,  Capt.  Zebediah  Dewey,  Mr.  Jesse  Churchill, 
Captain  William  Gage,  Captain  Ebenezer  Allen,  Benjamin  Spencer, 
Elsq.,  Mr.  Whitefield  Foster,  Mr.  Joseph  Smith,  Mr.  Stephen  Pince, 
Mr,  John  Southerland,  Captain  Jonathan  Fassett,  Captain  Josiah 
Powers,  Captain  Jeremiah  Powers,  Mr.  Gamaliel  Painter,  Captain 
Heman  Allen,  Captain  Ira  Allen,  Colonel  Thomas  Chittenden,  Mr. 
William  Miller,  Dr.  William  Hall,  Col.  Benjamin  Carpenter,  Captain 
John  Bamet,  Mr.  Israel  Smith,  Mr.  John  Dyer,  Mr.  Dennis  Locklin, 
Nathaniel  Robinson,  Elsq.,  Mr.  Joshua  Webb,  Dr.  Reuben  Jones, 
Mr,  Jabez  Seargeants,  Captain  John  Coffin,  Captain  William  Udly, 
Mr.  Ebenezer  Hoisington,  Captain  William  Curtiss,  Major  Joel 
Mathews,  Captain  William  Gallop,  Mr.  Benjamin  Emmons,  Mr. 
Stephen  Tilden,  Col.  Joseph  Marsh,  Mr.  John  Troop,  John  W. 
Dana,  Esq.,  Mr.  Asa  Whitcomb,  Mr.  Asa  Chandler,  Col.  Peter 
Alcott,  Major  Thomas  Murdock,  Mr.  Jacob  Burton,  Joel  Marsh, 
ELsq.,  Mr.  Daniel  Gilbert,  Mr,  Abner  Chamberlain,  Mr.  Frederick 
Smith,  Mr,  Amos  Woodworth,  Mr,  Amabiah  Woodworth,  Dr,  Bil- 
dad  Andress,  Mr,  Benjamin  Baldwin,  Mr,  John  G,  D,  Bailey,  Captain 
Robert  Johnston, — amounting  to  seventy-two  in  number,  being  all 
convened  at  the  town  house  in  Windsor,  aforesaid,  and  the  motion 
being  made  and  seconded,  whether  the  house  would  proceed  to 
business  on  the  former  declaration  made  at  Westminster,  in  January, 
aforesaid,  with  this  alteration  only,  that  instead  of  New  Connecticut, 
the  said  district  should  ever  be  known  by  the  name  of  Vermont  ? 
That  then  the  name  of  the  representatives  being  distinctly  and  severally 
called  by  the  Secretary,  seventy-one  of  them  did  answer  in  the  follow- 
ing, viz,  "  proceed  to  form  ;  "  at  which  time  and  place  the  said  seventy- 
one  members  did  renew  their  pledges  to  each  other  by  all  the  ties  held 
sacred  among  men,  and  resolve  and  declare  that  they  were  at  all 
times  ready  in  conjunction  with  their  brethren  in  the  United  States,  to 
contribute  their  full  proportion  towards  maintaining  the  present  just 
war  against  the  fleets  and  armies  of  Great  Britain, 

That  the  public  may  be  capable  of  forming  a  just  idea  of  the 
reasons  which  so  necessarily  obliged  the  inhabitants  of  the  district 
before  described,  to  declare  themselves  to  be  separate  and  distinct 
from  the  State  of  New  York,  the  following  complaints  are  hereto 
subjoined. 


39 

COMPLAINTS. 

In  the  year  1  764,  the  Legislative  authority  of  New  York  did 
obtain  jurisdiction  over  the  before  described  territory  of  land,  by  virtue 
of  a  false  representation  made  by  the  late  Lieut.  Governor  Golden, 
that  for  the  convenience  of  trade  and  administration  of  justice  the 
inhabitants  were  desirous  of  being  annexed  to  that  Government. 

They  have  refused  to  make  re-grants  of  the  same  lands  to  the  original 
proprietors  and  occupants,  unless  at  the  exhorbitant  rate  of  $2300 
fees  for  each  township,  and  did  enhance  the  quit  rent  three  fold,  and 
demanded  an  immediate  delivery  of  the  title  derived  before  from  New 
Hampshire. 

The  Judges  of  their  Supreme  Court  have  made  a  solemn  declaration, 
that  the  charters,  conveyances,  &c.,  of  the  lands  included  in  the  before 
described  premises,  were  utterly  null  and  void,  on  which  said  title  was 
founded. 

In  consequence  of  which  declaration,  writs  of  possession  have  by 
them  issued,  and  the  Sheriff  of  the  County  of  Albany  sent  at  the  head 
of  six  or  seven  hundred  armed  men  to  enforce  the  execution  thereof. 

TTiey  have  passed  an  act  annexing  a  penalty  thereto,  of  thirty 
pounds,  five  and  six  months  imprisonment,  on  any  person,  who  should 
refuse  attending  the  sheriff  after  bemg  requested  for  the  purpose  of 
executing  writs  of  possession. 

The  Governors,  Dunmore,  Tyron  and  Colden,  have  made  re-grants 
to  several  tracts  of  land  included  in  the  premises,  to  certain  favorite 
land-jobbers  in  the  Government  of  New  York,  in  direct  relation  of 
his  Britanic  Majesty's  special  orders  in  the  year  I  767. 

They  have  endeavored  and  many  times  threatened  to  excite  the 
King's  troops  to  destroy  us. 

They  have  issued  proclamations  wherein  they  have  offered  large 
sums  of  money  for  the  purpose  of  apprehending  those  persons  who 
have  dared  boldly  and  publicly  to  appear  in  defence  of  their  just 
rights. 

They  did  pass  twelve  acts  of  outlawry  on  the  9th  of  March,  A.  D. 
1  774,  empowering  the  respective  Judges  of  their  Supreme  Court,  to 
award  execution  of  death  against  those  inhabitants  in  said  district,  that 
they  should  judge  to  be  offenders,  without  trial. 


40 

They  have  and  still  continue  an  unjust  claim  to  those  lands,  which 
greatly  reteurds  emigration  into,  and  the  settlement  of  this  State. 

They  have  hired  foreign  troops,  emigrants  from  Scotland,  at  different 
times,  and  armed  them  to  drive  us  out  of  possession. 

They  have  sent  the  savages  on  our  frontiers  to  destroy  us. 

They  have  proceeded  to  erect  the  counties  of  Cumberland  and 
Gloucester,  and  established  courts  of  justice  there,  after  they  were 
discountenanced  by  the  authority  of  Great  Britain. 

The  Free  Convention  of  the  State  of  New  York,  at  Harlem,  in 
the  year  1  776,  unanimously  voted,  "that  all  quit-rents  formerly  due 
to  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  are  now  due  and  owing  to  this  Conven- 
tion, or  such  future  government  as  shall  be  established  in  this  State. " 

To  give  truth  its  due  limits,  they,  the  late  government  of  New  York, 
have  spared  neither  cost  or  pains,  nor  been  wanting  in  using  every 
artful  insinuation  withm  the  compass  of  their  power;  (however 
unwarrantable  by  the  laws  of  God  or  man,)  to  defraud  those  inhabitants 
out  of  the  whole  of  their  landed  property  ;  and  nothmg  but  consciences 
void  of  offence  towards  God  and  man,  to  whose  impartial  judgment  we 
appeal,  could  have  induced  those  inhabitants  to  have  run  the  risk,  and 
to  have  undergone  the  hardships  and  fatigues  they  have  borne,  for  the 
sfJvation  of  their  lives,  liberties  and  properties. 

In  the  several  stages  of  the  aforesaid  oppression,  we  have  petitioned 
his  Britannic  Majesty  in  the  most  humble  manner  for  redress,  and 
have  at  a  very  great  expense,  received  several  reports  in  our  favor : 
and  in  other  instances  wherein  we  have  petitioned  the  late  Legislative 
authority  of  New  York,  these  petitions  have  been  treated  with  neglect. 
We  shall  therefore  only  remind  the  public  that  our  local  situation  alone, 
is  a  sufficient  reason  of  our  declaration  of  an  mdependency,  and  must 
therefore  denounce  a  separation  from  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
refer  the  public  to  our  declaration  of  being  a  distinct  State,  published 
in  the  Cormecticut  Courant  the  1 5  th  day  of  January  last,  and  sincerely 
wish,  that  in  future  a  lasting  and  permanent  peace  may  continue  between 
the  State  of  New  York  and  this  with  the  other  United  States  of 
America. 

By  order  of  Convention, 
JONAS  FAY.  Secretary. 


41 

"The  Song  of  the  Vermonters,"  1779.* 

Ho — all  to  the  borders !  Vermonters,  come  down. 
With  your  breeches  of  deer-skin,  and  jackets  of  brown  ; 
With  your  red  woolen  caps,  and  your  moccasins,  come 
To  the  gathering  summons  of  trumpet  and  drum. 

Come  down  with  your  rifles !  let  gray  wolf  and  fox 
Howl  on  in  the  shade  of  their  primitive  rocks  ; 
Let  the  bear  feed  securely  from  pig-pen  and  stall ; 
Here's  a  two-legged  game  for  your  powder  and  ball. 

On  our  South  come  the  Dutchman,  enveloped  in  grease ; 
And,  arming  for  battle,  while  canting  of  peace ; 

*  The  political  history  of  Vermont  is  full  of  interest.  In  1  762,  New 
York,  by  reason  of  an  extraordinary  grant  of  Charles  II.  to  the  Duke 
of  York,  claimed  a  jurisdiction  over  about  sixty  townships  of  which 
grants  had  been  given  by  the  Governor  of  New  Hampshire,  declaring 
those  grants  illegal.  An  attempt  was  made  to  dispossess  the  settlers,  but 
it  was  promptly  resisted.  In  1  774,  New  York  passed  a  most  despotic 
law  against  the  resisting  Vermonters,  and  the  Governor  offered  a  large 
reward  for  the  apprehension  of  the  celebrated  Ethan  Allen,  and 
seven  of  his  associates.  The  prescribed  persons  in  turn  threatened  to 
"k.ill  and  destroy  any  person  or  persons  whomsoever  that  should  be 
accessary,  aiding  or  assisting  in  taking  any  of  them. "  See  Allen's 
'Oindication,  p.  45.  Blood  was  shed  at  Westminster  Court  House, 
in  I  775.  Vide.  R.  Jones'  Narrative.  In  I  777  Vermont  declared 
its  independence.  New  York  still  urged  her  claims  and  attempted  to 
enforce  them  with  her  militia.  In  1  779,  New  Hampshire  also  laid 
claim  to  the  whole  State  of  Vermont,  Massachusetts  speedily  followed 
by  putting  in  her  claims  to  about  two-thirds  of  it.  Congress,  powerless 
under  the  old  Confederation,  endeavored  to  keep  on  good  terms  with 
all  the  parties,  but  ardently  favored  New  York.  Vermont  remonstrated 
warmly.  Congress  threatened.  Vermont  published  "  an  appeal  to  the 
candid  and  impartial  world" — denounced  Congress,  and  asserted  its 
own  absolute  independence.  Notwithstanding  the  threats  offered  on 
all  sides,  the  contest  terminated  without  much  bloodshed,  and  Vermont 
was  admitted  into  the  Union  in  I  79 1 ,  after  existing  as  an  indepen- 
dent sovereignty  for  nearly  fifteen  years. —  Williams'  History  of 
Vermont.  &c. 


42 

On  our  East,  Crafty  Meshecht  has  gathered  his  band. 
To  hang  up  our  leaders,  and  eat  out  our  land. 

Ho — all  to  the  rescue !  For  Satan  shall  work 
No  gain  for  his  legions  of  Hampshire  and  York ! 
They  claim  our  possessions, — the  pitiful  knaves — 
The  tribute  we  pay,  shall  be  prisons  and  graves  ! 

Let  Clinton  and  Ten  Broek.J  with  bribes  in  their  hands. 
Still  seek  to  divide  us,  and  parcel  our  lands  ; — 
We've  coats  for  our  traitors,  whoever  they  are ; 
The  warp  is  of  feathers — the  filling  of  tar !  § 

Does  the  "  old  bay  state  "  threaten  ?   Does  Congress  complain  ? 

Swarms  Hampshire  in  arms  on  our  borders  again  ? 

Bark  the  war-dogs  of  Britain  aloud  on  the  lake  ? 

Let  'em  come ; — what  they  can,  they  are  welcome  to  take. 

What  seek  they  among  us  ?  The  pride  of  our  wealth 
Is  comfort,  contentment,  and  labor  and  health. 
And  lands  which,  as  Freemen,  we  only  have  trod, 
Independent  of  all  save  the  mercies  of  God. 

Yet  we  owe  no  allegiance ;  we  bow  to  no  throne ; 
Our  ruler  is  law,  and  the  law  is  our  own ; 
Our  leaders  themselves  are  our  own  fellowmen. 
Who  can  handle  the  sword,  or  the  scythe,  or  the  pen. 

Our  wives  are  all  true,  and  our  daughters  are  fair. 

With  their  blue  eyes  of  smiles,  and  their  light  flowing  hair ; 

t  Hon.  Meshech  Weare,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire. 

t  Gov.  Clinton  of  New  York,  and  Hon.  A.  Ten  Broek,  President 
of  the  New  York  Convention, 

§  The  New  York  sheriffs  and  those  who  submitted  to  the  authority 
of  New  York  were  often  roughly  handled  by  the  Green  Mountain 
Boys.  The  following  is  from  the  journal  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
Vermont  Council  of  public  safety :  Council  of  Safety,  3d  Sept.  /  777. 

" is  permitted  to  return  home,  and  remain  on  his 

father's  farm  (  and  if  found  off  to  expect  thirty-nine  lashes  of  the  beach 
seal)  until  further  orders  from  this  Council.  "  The  instrument  of  pun- 
ishment was  termed  the  "  beach  seal, "  in  allusion  to  the  great  seal 
of  New  Hampshire  affixed  to  the  grants,  of  which  the  beach  rod 
well  laid  upon  the  naked  backs  of  the  "  Yorkers "  and  their  adherents 
was  considered  a  confirmation. 


43 

All  brisk  at  their  wheels  till  the  dark  even-fall, 
Then  blithe  at  the  sleigh-ride,  the  husking,  and  ball ! 

We've  sheep  on  the  hillsides ;  w^e've  cows  on  the  plain  ; 
And  gay-tasseled  corn-fields,  and  rank  growing  grain ; 
There  are  deer  on  the  mountains ;  and  wood-pigeons  fly 
From  the  crack  of  our  muskets,  like  clouds  on  the  sky. 

And  there's  fish  in  our  streamlets  and  rivers,  which  take 
Their  course  from  the  hills  to  our  broad-bosomed  lake ; 
Through  rock-arched  Winooski  the  salmon  leaps  free, 
And  the  portly  shad  follows  all  fresh  from  the  sea. 

Like  a  sun-beam  the  pickerel  glides  through  his  poo! ; 
And  the  spotted  trout  sleeps  where  the  water  is  cool. 
Or  darts  from  his  shelter  of  rock  and  of  root 
At  the  beaver's  quick  plunge,  or  the  angler's  pursuit. 

And  ours  are  the  mountains,  which  awfully  rise 

Till  they  rest  their  green  heads  on  the  blue  of  the  skies ; 

And  ours  are  the  forests  unwasted,  unshorn. 

Save  where  the  wild  path  of  the  tempest  is  torn. 

And  though  savage  and  wild  be  this  climate  of  ours. 
And  brief  be  our  seasons  of  fruits  and  of  flowers. 
Far  dearer  the  blast  round  our  mountains  which  raves. 
Than  the  sweet  summer  zephyr  which  breathes  over  slaves. 

Hurra  for  Vermont !  for  the  land  which  we  till 
Must  have  sons  to  defend  her  from  valley  and  hill ; 
Leave  the  harvest  to  rot  on  the  field  where  it  grows, 
And  the  reaping  of  wheat  for  the  reaping  of  foes. 

Far  from  Michiscoui's  wild  valley,  to  where 
Poosoomsuck  steals  down  from  his  wood-circled  lair. 
From  Shocticook  river  to  Lutterlock  town, — 
Ho^all  to  the  rescue  !  Vermonters,  come  down  ! 

Come  York  or  come  Hampshire, — come  traitors  and  knaves ; 
If  ye  rule  o'er  our  land,  ye  shall  rule  o'er  our  graves ; 
Our  vow  is  recorded — our  banner  unfurled  ; 
In  the  name  of  Vermont  we  defy  all  the  world  I  II 

II  "  Rather  than  fail,  I  will  retire  with  my  hardy  Green  Mountain 
Boys  to  the  desolate  caverns  of  the  mountains,  and  wage  war  with 
human  nature  at  large. " — Ethan  Allen's  Letter  to  Congress,  March 
9,  1784. 


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